The day that changed everything
by lolcode
Summary: Tails is homeless and bullied, but then meets Sonic, which changes everything. Follow Tails as he learns what it means to live a normal life. Contains some violence, sad moments, but also happy and cute moments. I don't think there's really a plot but there is character progression. On indefinite hiatus.
1. Running

I had a random thought one day, and instead of just throwing it away, I decided to write it down. Way too soon, this was over like 20K+ words, and I still had new ideas. So either I'm just too random, write too much details, write boring, or really might have some hidden talent. I want to find out which one it is. It _is_ my first fanfic, though if people appreciate what I write, it can get pretty long.

Author's note: Tails doesn't get his nickname until later on in this chapter. And though he knows his real name (Miles), that won't be revealed until a later chapter. But for the sake of you understanding who is who, he'll be referred to as Miles for now.

And another note: Sonic is 14, Tails is ? (will also be revealed later) Ages are not really comparable to Earth ages.

Warning: contains some violence

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic etc, though you already knew that

**Running**

It was winter on Mobius. The way the snow just covered up everything was beautiful; everything looked so different. Sonic was out for an evening jog in the forest, a nice and thick shawl protecting his neck from the icy weather. Most people would have also picked a jacket in this weather, but he didn't like how hot it got when jogging. He preferred jogging through the fields around his home in the Mystic Ruins, but since those were covered in quite a layer of snow, he had decided to through the forest a change, hoping the snow would be less thick there. While the snow was indeed less thick, it was still hard work, but going a bit slower did give him the ability to marvel more at the beautiful surroundings.

On the forest floor you could see all kinds of tracks: the tracks of various woodland critters were everywhere, here a couple had had a nice stroll through the woods, there a few kids had been running after each other, and... drops of blood? Sonic stopped, scratching his head. _This is something new... _A little off the path he could hear children yelling. _Oh well, they're probably playing and one of them has scratched a branch or something_

He was about to continue, but didn't. He'd sworn he heard a scream slightly above the yelling. He listened, but when nothing came, he thought he'd just imagined it and shrugged off the thought. But there it was again. He decided to make sure and wait a bit longer this time, and surely enough, he could now distinct a scream every once in a while above the yelling of the kids. It wasn't much louder, and at first you wouldn't even tell it was there, but here it was again, for the fourth time now. He decided to investigate what all the commotion was about, and silently followed the many footsteps leading off the path, and the occasional drop of blood. When he came closer, the occasional scream clearly audible now, he could also start to make out some of the words that were yelled. He tried to think of a game where people yelled "Freak!", "Take that!", "You want some more?", but couldn't think of any.

Another scream, and then it hit him: this wasn't a game.

* * *

It was winter on Mobius. Miles didn't like snow. He didn't like how his dirty orange fur was a lot more visible against the white snow than it was against the forest floor. And how he could be followed by his footprints. He hated how it made avoiding the inevitable so much more unavoidable.

He was tired. He had been wandering around town, looking for food, when a gang of bullies had spotted him and gave chase. Not that it was possible to mistake anyone else for him: no-one else around here had two tails. He had often wondered what he had done to deserve all this. Because this wasn't the first time they did this. Or the second. Or the hundredth. The thousandth time maybe? Probably even more. And no one cared.

In the city, most of the snow had melted, making running easy, but he didn't like the town. The risk of running into another gang, or more general being run over by a car, was too high. So he took to the fields, but here there was much more snow, where he couldn't run as fast. It also didn't help a lot that snow came in through the hole in his left shoe, which in turn basically caused his left foot to start freezing. Not that his shoes weren't watertight to begin with, so his right foot wasn't much better off. All the other people wore jackets and warm shawls. Not to mention their shoes actually kept out the snow.

He looked behind him and saw that 'the gang' was gaining on him. He figured he could keep in front of them for maybe another minute, provided his legs would keep up. Which he knew they couldn't. He hadn't found anything to eat all day, and his already not very high stamina had dropped completely to zero right now. He set himself to use up what little energy he had left to try and lose them in the forest, though he knew the situation was hopeless. Speeding through the forest, his right arm received a huge gash from a low-hanging branch, which was now leaving drops of blood on the otherwise perfectly white snow as he ran further. He hadn't even seen it, though he felt the pain, and he gripped it with his other arm as he ran further. The sounds of his pursuers came nearer and nearer...

He came to a clearing, where one of his pursuers overtook him. He stopped, looked around, praying there would be another way out, but there wasn't. It was one of those small clearings with really only one path through it, and thorn bushes everywhere else. He couldn't go forward, because one of his pursuers blocked that path. The only other way, backwards, was blocked by the rest of the gang: he was trapped. He considered going through the thorn bushes, but quickly decided against it: he had done that once, in pure desperation, but running with thorns was extremely painful, and in the end they still found him. That, and his right arm had a huge gash, he shuddered at the thought of a thorn sticking in there. He was completely worn out, with no way out, and did the only thing there was left for him to do: collapse to the ground and hope they would go away quickly. Which of course didn't happen.

The gang certainly wasn't going to let him off easily, which they never did anyway, but after chasing him for so long, they decided they would give the kit an 'extra special treatment' today. Which basically meant that they would not only hit, kick and stomp him, they would also use sticks, and continue until literally every square inch of his body was at least hit once. The only thing different today was that they quickly saw his bleeding right arm, and decided to give that 'a bit more attention' today.

He was so used to being beaten up, he usually didn't even bother to scream in pain anymore. But every time they hit his wounded right arm, he felt immense pain, so much more intense then when they would 'just' kick him. He let out a loud scream every time they hit him there, which somehow seemed to encourage the gang to hit him there even more often and still harder. "Hey guys, we should really get him wounded more often! I love how hard he screams every time we hit him there!" The others just continued to hit him everywhere they could, throwing in the usual mix of taunts, "Take that!", "Freak!", and "Do you want some more?" being their personal favorites.

This had been going on for a minute or so when they suddenly became aware of a blue hedgehog who was slowly and silently, but steadily, walking towards them. "Uh oh guys, we have company!" one of them shouted, and they were gone in an instant.

* * *

Sonic was walking steadily towards them, his eyes in obvious rage, when one of the kids noticed him, shouted something to the others, and they were gone in a blink of his eyes. 'Cowards.' thought Sonic. He decided not to follow them, let his anger subside and concentrate on the pathetic heap of orange fur lying in front of him on the ground, bleeding, bruised and crying.

This was difficult. Any of the usual openings, like 'Are you alright?', or 'Is something wrong?', were just so... inappropriate. Since the kit was lying face down on the ground, his face buried in his arms, he couldn't see his face. He wasn't even sure the kit had noticed he was there at all.

Miles noticed the hitting and shouting had stopped. He didn't know what made them stop so suddenly, and much sooner than normal, but if even _they_ were afraid of it, then it must be very scary. And probably going to hit him even harder. So he had decided to do as if it weren't there, not move at all, and hope it wouldn't notice him.

Sonic had stood in front of the kit for over a minute now, the kit seemingly still unaware of his presence. He couldn't really see it clearly, but the kit seemed to be holding his right upper arm for some reason. He decided to break the awkward silence by simply saying "Hello? Anybody home?" No reaction. Miles had heard the words but they belonged to the scary thing, so he wasn't going to answer.  
"Hello?"  
Miles became irritated now: whatever the scary thing was had certainly seen him, but not hit him. It didn't make any sense.  
"Go away." came the reply from the orange mess.  
"I'm not going to do that." Sonic replied.  
"Just hit me already then!"  
"Why would I want to do that? Don't you think you've had enough of that for today? I saw what they did, you know."  
Miles was completely broken now. Nothing the scary thing said made any sense. His brain wasn't even working properly anymore. He just wanted to be left alone and cry himself to sleep, just like so many other nights.  
"It isn't very polite to not look at somebody who's talking to you, you know?" Sonic said.  
The orange heap gave a grunt. Something moved and for a moment, an orange and white, or should I say dirty orange and gray, face looked Sonic straight in the eyes, then it went back to the position it had been earlier in. "Now please go away?" the orange heap tried to ask, though it sounded more like crying.

The way that tear-drenched face had looked at him, even for that short moment, was what had made Sonic's decision. "No"  
Miles flinched as he received his answer. Truth be told, he had expected that answer. But, he had also expected to have a shoe meet his face the moment he looked, which hadn't happened. So far, the scary thing, whoever he was, hadn't hurt him at all. It confused him, but the pain is his right arm was overpowering any ability to think reasonable. So it remained silent again, until the other decided to break it: "This is going nowhere. Look, let's just start over again. I'm Sonic, what's your name kid?" Silence. But Sonic knew the other heard every single word he said. "Aren't you going to answer me?" More silence. Miles was so confused. He tried to think straight. Who was this person? Why is he still here? And why hasn't he hurt me yet? Hurt. His thoughts traveled back to his right arm. Ow.

Sonic patience was running out now. "Well if you're not going to answer me, I'll just start by thinking up one for you. I'll just call you..." He looked him over, his eyes falling on his twin tails, and without thinking, he finished his sentence: "... Tails" The moment he finished his sentence, he finally got a reaction from the kit, although it wasn't really the reaction he'd been hoping for. It scared him.

Miles knew what was coming. You had to be blind to miss them. The reason nobody liked him. He braced himself for the witty remark that would obviously follow. "... Tails" The way the other one said it, so soft, without any trace of venom. And it described him so well. Just like 'Freak', 'Mutant' and 'Useless' described him so well. He couldn't hold it in any longer, and simply exploded with crying.

The way the kit exploded with crying right after he said it, actually scared Sonic. "Wow kid, calm down! What's wrong with such a nice name?"  
In his crying, Miles had unknowingly let his defense of not answering at all down. He didn't know what he was saying, or that he was even saying anything at all.  
"Everything! I hate them! Everyone hates them! I. HATE. MY...tails..." Now that he spoke the word himself, he was surprised at how nice it sounded. Yes, it described him perfectly. And yes, it was about his bodily feature he hated so much. But for some reason, it was different from all those other names. The way the other had said it. The way he had just said it himself. It didn't have to be... negative? How can something directly related to his much hated feature, _not_ sound negative? It was all so confusing. The person who wouldn't go away. The pain in his arm. The name. The involuntary twitch his tails gave when he heard himself saying it. And then the person's reply: "I don't hate them." The way it didn't sound faked for a change. The other person hadn't even hit him so far. Maybe he really meant it. But could he trust him? No, he wouldn't trust him. But maybe he would go away if he just did what he wanted, which seemed to be just talking.

Miles tried to get into an upright position, but his strength failed him. "Here let me help you" and before he had a chance to refuse, he found himself sitting upright against a tree. Sonic was finally able to get a better look at the kit, but what met his eyes wasn't pretty. Those tear-drenched eyes, looking so empty. The messed up and dirty fur.  
"Y-you don't h-hate them?" the kit spoke for the first time of his own accord, continuining his sobs and an occasional sniffle.  
"Of course not. Why would I?"  
"Ev-everybody does. I'm sorry, you d-don't have to h-hear all this."  
"It's okay, just tell me everything. I'll listen."

Sonic didn't know it, but while he was doing what seemed natural, to Miles it all seemed so... weird? He wasn't used to people actually listening to what he said, and receiving answers in a verbal form instead of non-verbal. "Ev-everybody hates m-me. Day after d-day, people h-hit me. Because o-of this." He waved his tails a single time.

Sonic didn't want to believe what he had just heard. But a kid his age wouldn't just make something up. How old was he anyway? He didn't look too big. Three? Four? Certainly not five. Anyway, just take one look at the kid: his fur was a complete mess and dirty, like he wasn't washed in ages.

"B-but you w-won't believe that, I'm s-sure." While the other person seemed to be really listening, surely he wouldn't believe him. He had no reason to, seeing that nobody ever believed anything he said.  
"I believe you." came the calm and very serious sounding response from the other person.  
"Y-you d-do?"  
"Have I lied to you about anything else so far? Like when I said I wasn't going to hit you?" Miles realized the person had a point. He had even helped him to sit upright.  
"N-no. No you h-haven't." A small gush wind had thrown ice cold air on his open wound. Miles clutched his hurt arm. "Aaaaaawww!" he cried.  
"What's wrong Tails?" Sonic asked, unconsciously using the name he had thought up earlier. Miles did notice how he mentioned the name again, it just sounded so... nice.  
"M-my a-arm... it-it h-hurts... s-so m. ."  
"What happened to it?" Sonic asked, trying to sound like he didn't know.  
"Y-you didn't see w-what they d-did?"  
"I saw them hit you pretty hard."  
"Y-yes. B-but is u-usually goes on longer."  
"Why do they do that, anyway?"  
"I-I don't know. B-but they s-seem to enjoy it m-more if I s-scream real hard." Something clicked inside Miles' head. "Y-you h-heard my s-screams?"  
"Yes, had you screamed any less loud, I wouldn't have heard you above the yelling of the other kids, and I would have just thought it were some kids playing in the forest."  
"W-was I r-really that loud?"  
"Yes Tails. Someone sounded in extreme pain, so I just followed the noise and here I am."  
"W-why do you keep c-calling me that?" Miles' asked.  
"You won't tell me your name, so I just thought up one. I hoped it would make talking to you easier. If you don't like it, you could have just said it and I would make up another name. You just said you hated it."  
Miles pondered for a moment. Then came his very shy reply, "I-I don't h-hate it. I a-actually quite n-nice. At least it's not s-something n-negative like everybody e-else does."  
"What do others call you then?"  
"F-Freak. M-Mutant. U-Use-less. A-and so on."  
"That's not really nice. Are you okay if I call you Tails then?" Miles nodded. Why was it that he trusted this person so much? Why was he able to talk about such things to this complete stranger he had already forgotten the name of? Was it because he really hadn't hurt him so far, where others would have long done so? Was it because he didn't hate his tails?  
"C-can I ask you s-something?"

Sonic could see the kit was trying really hard, though he couldn't resist to throw in a little joke here, if only to see the kit's reaction to it. "Sure you can, although you just did by asking me if you could ask something." Tails thought for a moment, then smiled at his own stupidity. It was a very small smile, and it was only there for a second before he realized what he was doing and removed it from his face, but Sonic had already noticed. "Am I right, or did I just see a veeeeery tiny smile right there?" Sonic half asked, half laughed, glad his little joke seemed to have landed correctly. Tails couldn't believe what just happened. This complete stranger had made him smile, something he hadn't done in years.  
"I-I think so. H-how did you d-do that?"  
"I just made a little joke. I'm glad you seemed to like it. Now what was you question?"  
Tails remembered what he was going to ask before the little joke, "W-what was your n-name?"  
"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. But that reminds me, you still haven't answered my question."  
"Q-question?" Tails couldn't remember it.  
"About your arm. What they did to it."  
"Oh... that."

It was weird. While talking to Sonic about something else, the little joke he had made, the pain in his arm had actually started to get less. Though it was instantly back now that he was reminded of it. But Sonic had listened, and seemed to believe, everything so far, so he decided to tell what happened. "I-I was r-running, t-the other kids p-pursuing me. I tore my a-arm on a br-branch. It was bl-bleeding but it could h-heal in a few days. B-but when the kids had c-cornered me and started hurting me, they d-discovered that it-it hurt a lot m-more than n-normal if they h-hit me there." Tails had started crying again. Sonic thought that the kid, having told him at least this much, must at least have some sort of trust in him now, and decided to touch him. It was just a simple stroke on the head, but it scared the kit.  
"S-Sonic. W-what are you d-doing?", the fear in his voice plainly evident. Touching was just hitting, but then very slow, was it?  
"Tails, stroking someone's head, or back, usually works to calm down someone who's crying. It also shows that I care for you. I won't continue if you don't like it, but even then I'll still care for you."

The word 'care'. Until now, that had always had a negative meaning for him. It had also often been preceded with the word 'take'. But not this. The feeling the gentle stroking gave him... it felt... so great... and so relaxing. He was already calming down. Hearing no protest from the kit, Sonic continued a little longer, before he stopped and asked: "Can I see your arm?" The kit thought for a moment.

'Can I see your arm?'. Not 'I want to see your arm.', 'Show me your arm.' or just forcing it. He knew Sonic probably wouldn't take 'no' for an answer, but at least he had asked it nicely. It makes so much difference. That was what made Tails' decision.

The kit slowly removed removed his left hand from his right arm, clenching his teeth and holding in cries of pain. Tears were once again in his eyes, but he was glad it was his own decision, instead of Sonic just pushing his arm out of the way. Surely that would have caused even more pain.

Sonic just stared at it. It looked very ugly. It was a big wound, a gash along the length of almost his entire upper arm. The skin underneath the fur was visibly red from the beating it had taken earlier, and though the bleeding had stopped now, the wound was filled with dirt. It would certainly infect if it didn't get cleaned right now, and even then it would most probably still infect. Sonic's home was too far away, maybe Tails' home was nearby and they could clean the wound there.

"Tails? Is your home somewhere nearby?" That question seemed to hurt him, though Tails didn't think Sonic meant to ask him that on purpose, so he answered truthfully. "Y-yes a-and n-no" Sonic didn't realize yet, "What's that supposed to mean?"  
"I... I... No..."  
"Tails?"  
"I... don't have a h..home. B-but I u-usually live around h-here in the f-forest."  
"Waaaait a moment (wow Sonic and slow!), did you just say you don't have a home?" The teared eyes told him all he needed to know really. He should have seen it, no-one with a home would be as dirty as Tails was. He was speechless for a moment. "You-you've been living out here all your life?" Tails slowly nodded.

Sonic didn't even bother to ask about parents, or _anyone_ maybe looking for him, because he already knew: no-one would be. Though he did promise himself silently to find out about Tails' parents someday, and give them a piece of his mind.  
"Sonic are-are you s-sad?" Tails had noticed how Sonic had stuttered in his last sentence.  
"Yes Tails, it makes me very sad to hear what you just said."  
"I-it wasn't my ch-choice, you know..."  
"I know, but I'm going to give you one now. I could take you back to my home, clean your wound and bandage it, and let you sleep in my house until you have a home. Though it's not exactly nearby, so we'll have to get the worst dirt out of your wound now. And that will hurt quite a lot, but not in the same way those kids treated you. Or if you don't want to trust me, which I can understand, you can stay out here. Although we're still getting the worst dirt out of that wound."

It was so hard for Tails to believe what Sonic had just said. Home. It was what he had never had, and always wanted. But it meant he would had to trust Sonic. Trust that he won't hit him. Trust that he will really find him a home. It would be so much easier for him, and for Sonic, if he just stayed out here. But he knew this wound would need extra care. Care that the hospital wasn't going to give him, since they hated him. Besides, the bullies would probably be waiting him up there. Or if he didn't show up, they would just find him again, and beat him up again. Going with Sonic might solve all of those problems, and the prospect of a clean wound, a home, and just being away from the bullies seemed so nice. It all came down to one question really: could he trust Sonic that much?

"Yes" was his thought, and without realizing he said that aloud.  
"Yes to what?" Sonic intervened in his train of thoughts, having waited patiently for the kit to give an answer.  
"Yes, I-I would like to go t-to your home, if-if that's alright with y-you."  
"Of course it's alright. But you understand that your wound is going to hurt twice then?"  
The kit nodded.  
"And you're okay with it if I do that?" Sonic asked, just to make it sure.  
The kit nodded, this time a little slower.  
"That's very brave of you, you know. Now, let me get some clean snow, and get the worst out."

A few moments later Sonic came back with quite a lot of snow. "Okay Tails, now this is going to hurt real hard. It's also probably going to bleed again, though I have a way to stop that when it's mostly clean. But if it hurts so much you want to scream, just scream, promise me that."  
"I... promise."

The kit actually stayed pretty silent. There were a few sobs and ow's, and he saw Tails wincing, but other than that, nothing. Sonic was amazed by how much this kit could take.

It hurt, _hard_. Maybe even harder then when the kids had hit him there earlier. But somehow, it was so much more tolerable now. Maybe it was the knowledge that it needed to hurt this much, if he ever wanted it to get better. And that it was Sonic who did it.

Soon, the wound was bleeding again, in combination with the snow washing away most of the bigger dirt. It almost even looked clean, though Sonic knew it would have to be properly disinfected, something he wasn't looking forward to. Sonic took off his shawl, and wrapped it tightly around Tails' arm.  
"Sonic? Why are you doing that?"  
"Doing what?"  
"Putting your shawl around my arm?"  
"That stops the bleeding, and prevents a lot of new dirt from coming in."  
"But-but, what if you get a c-cold because of m-me?"  
"Tails, I couldn't care less about getting a cold, not if I'm saving your life with it!"  
"Y-you really mean that?"  
"Of course. What makes you doubt that?"  
"It's j-just that, a-anybody else would just w-walk away like I w-wasn't even here..."  
"Ssshhh, it's okay now. Besides, I'll just buy a new shawl, they don't cost that much. But let's get going now, it's getting late."

Tails tried to stand up, using the tree to support him, but he was so tired, he just fell forward. He would have made a nosedive into the snow hadn't Sonic seen this coming and catched him. "Tails, I don't think you can walk the whole way, you can barely stand! Shall I carry you?"  
"N-no please, I-I can do it." Tails said, trying (and failing) a second time.  
"Tails, it wasn't really a question." Sonic winked.  
"Oh." Tails looked at the ground, then looked at Sonic. "Then, y-yes? Please c-carry me?"  
"That's better."

* * *

Well there you have it, the first chapter. Let me know what you think of it, what did you like, what not, etc.  
_Edit Jul 16, 2012: changed line breaking and paragraphing because it was a mess_


	2. Blanket

Thanks for the comments everyone! Here's a little something for all of you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic etc, though you already knew that

* * *

**Blanket**

It was dark by the time they arrived at Sonic's house. It had taken quite a while, and Tails had fallen asleep somewhere along the way.  
Sonic's home wasn't large by any standards: downstairs was a small hallway with the stairs and underneath them was a small room with the central heating unit, the electrity meter and the vacuum cleaner. There was also a door to the quite big garage here, though Sonic seldom used that, as almost everything fit inside the house. The rest was a nice living room, with the kitchen in a corner of it. Upstairs were the bathroom, bedroom, and a small study room, the last containing a desk on one side and a book cabinet, containing anything but books, on the other side.

All in all, a nice house really, located in the Mystic Ruins just outside the town of Station Square. While the town was where Sonic did all of his shopping, here everything was green and quiet. Well not green right now, but you should see the place in spring and summer. One could totally relax here.

Sonic flicked on the light, the hallway instantly lit. This woke Tails, and when he opened his eyes, he immediately closed them again: the light was so bright! Where was he anyway? He tried to get out of whoever was holding him's grasp, but that subsided once that whoever talked.  
"Tails! It's okay. Maybe I should have woken you a little earlier."  
Yes, he remembered it now, Sonic had found him, and then, this is his home?  
"Is-is this your home?" Tails asked, looking all around him, as Sonic was carrying him into the living room.  
"Yes. Do you like it?"  
"It's so nice and warm in here..." and he let out a yawn. Sonic managed to grab a chair, and set him down on it.  
"Wait here Tails, I'm going to grab some stuff we need for your wound."

Sonic was back a minute later with a first aid box. 'Well this thing comes in handy after all.' Sonic thought. In fact, Sonic's first aid kit had never been used before, he had never had any real serious wound that couldn't be fixed with sticking plasters. He didn't even know what all the stuff in it was for. But at least in school he had learned that whatever you do, just tell the other person first.

"Okay Tails, I'm going to remove the shawl, and put some of this fluid stuff on it. It's going to hurt a lot more than the snow, but it's for your own good. Are you ready?" Tails nodded, thinking about how Sonic hadn't hurt him at all so far, well except the snow earlier, but that had just been necessary. Sonic had said this was necessary too, well he knew it was, and that the hospital wouldn't do it because he was who he was. He just wondered how much this would hurt. Sonic had said it would hurt more than the snow... and that had hurt quite a lot already.

He soon got his answer though, in the form of pure pain. Sonic had put some of the fluid on a sterile rag, and everytime he touched the wound with it, Tails let out a scream, just like he had done when the other kids thrashed him. It hurt like there was no tomorrow.

With the wound finally clean (and a lot of screams later), Sonic put a bandage around it. Tails was crying, but that too stopped when he noticed when the pain of the wound had now reduced to nothing more like a regular bruise.

Sonic's intention had been to give Tails a bath now, because he was really dirty everywhere, but seeing just how tired Tails was, changed his mind. It would mean some more things to wash, but hey, that's what washing machines are for anyway.  
"Tails, I think you should get some sleep now."  
"Oh... Th-thank you Sonic."  
It appeared that Tails was trying to get comfortable on the chair somehow.  
"I don't mean on this chair. I have a spare mattress around here somewhere, I'll put it on the ground next to my bed, some sheets and voila, instant bed. Just wait here, I'll get it from the garage and put some sheets on it."  
Tails wanted to thank him again, but Sonic was already busy. And he was so tired, he couldn't really think of anything but sleep...

Despite that, Tails lay awake in his improvised bed for a long while, recounting how everything had happened so fast.  
How Sonic hadn't hurt him. And when he had, it had been for his own good and Sonic had waited until he was ready.  
How Sonic had given him a name, that while still about his tails, didn't have a negative tone.  
How Sonic didn't seem to care at all about his now ruined shawl.  
How Sonic made this improvised bed, just for him, and had wished him goodnight. He hoped Sonic would let him sleep in his own bed some night, but quickly dismissed that thought. It was Sonic's bed, not his: he wouldn't allow himself to hope that much from Sonic.  
How this day, that had started just like any other day, had ended so much different, so much... happier? Was that this feeling he was feeling right now? Well at least it felt nice, and he was finally closing his eyes, wrapping the blanket around him.  
Blanket.  
Blanket...  
He realized what it reminded him of, and instantly grew sad. He didn't want to end this day with _that_ memory, but it would happen now anyway. It started with sniffles and sobs, if he cried, Sonic would wake, and Sonic would be so mad then!

In the end, he couldn't hold it in anymore, and cried.  
'Well this is it then: Sonic will wake and throw me out. I'll just let myself out, so at least _he_ can go back to sleep without getting up.'  
And he got up and started wobbling towards the bedroom door.

Sonic woke to the sounds of crying. He quickly spotted Tails wobbling towards the door.  
"And where do you think you're going?" he said, sounding irritated.  
"A-away." 'Oh, Sonic's voice sounds so mean, I-I just hope he won't h-hit me...'  
Sonic got up like lightning, and blocked the way. "No you're not."

Sonic looked irritated. And normally, that is where the hurting starts. But Sonic was just... standing there, doing nothing but standing in his way. His way had been blocked often before, but then people had always advanced on him. Which Sonic didn't. He was just... standing there. It didn't make any sense to him.  
All he wanted to do was just cry all night long.  
Away from Sonic.  
Which meant getting past Sonic.  
At any cost. That's where his brain just shut down completely and he went into a mad frenzy.

Tails' reaction was unlike anything Sonic had ever seen. It was so intense. Like it was fueled by years of pent-up frustration. 'Which is probably the case.' was Sonic's last thought before Tails charged at him. "Get out of the way! I hate this house!"  
"Whoa! Calm down!" Sonic yelled while trying to hold Tails at a safe distance. But Tails wasn't even listening. "No! I hate the blanket! I hate YOU!"

Sonic didn't like what was happening. Clearly, Tails was very upset about something. He did mention 'blanket', but how anyone can be upset about a blanket was beyond him. Sonic just didn't know how to really handle the situation. For now, he was just keeping Tails inside the room until the kit would tire out eventually. Which was cut short when he felt sharp teeth in his left hand. Sonic was not going to tolerate anyone biting him, and just completely lost it there.

Before he even knew what he was doing, he had tackled Tails face-down to the ground quite hard and held him in that position by holding Tails' arm behind his back.  
"LET ME GO! LET ME GO! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME AGAIN!"  
It was only then that Sonic realized who he had just tackled: Tails. It didn't make him feel good, but well, Tails had just bit him for no reason at all.  
"I'll let you go once you apologize!"  
"Okay I'm sorry NOW LET ME GO!"  
"Like you mean it Tails."

'Tails', that name. The nice name. The name Sonic gave him. At least that part had come back to him now.  
"Sonic! Let me go!"  
"Not until you apologize."  
Tails recognized the voice as Sonic's. The one person who had been nice. Why was he holding him on the ground now then? And why was Sonic holding his arms so painfully tight? He was... hurting him?  
"Aaah! You're hurting me! Let me go!"  
"You hurt me first. And I already told you twice: you have to apologize first."  
"Apologize for what anyway! I didn't hurt you!"  
It finally hit Tails. Did Sonic just say 'You hurt me first'?  
"Wait - I...I... hurt you? No that's not true I don't remember it!"  
"And what's this then?" Sonic showed his bitten hand in front of Tails' eyes, his other still holding his arms.  
Sure, anyone could fake a bite. But this one looked like it was made a minute ago, and Tails recognized his own teethmarks on Sonic's hand. Why couldn't he remember any of this?  
"I... I d-did that?"  
"Yes you did. Do you know why you did it?"  
"I... no..."  
"You don't remember anything?"  
"I-I remember you standing in front of the door..."  
"Yeah, I wouldn't get out of your way, and because of that you went crazy and bit me."  
"I... I can't r-remember..."  
"You bit me, so I put you on the floor. And that might have hurt you a little, but your teeth hurt more. Or I could have let you past, and then you would be back on your own in the woods now. Would you really want that?"  
"...n-no..."  
"Then, even if you don't remember it, I think you have an apology to make."

Tails often had to make fake apologies, for things he clearly hadn't done. When it was for things he actually had done, it was for rididulous things such as blinking his eyes. And still, bullies didn't find his apologies 'good enough', and hurt him for that. But this was different. This time, everything pointed to it that he really had done something worth apologizing for, even if he couldn't remember. It was so much harder than all those fake apologies. And unlike all those fake apologies, the receiving person accepted his apology, and kept his promise to release him.

Tails was calmed down enough now to sit beside Sonic on the mattress, but he was sad. Sad that it appeared he had bit Sonic. Sad that Sonic had hurt him, did Sonic enjoy hurting him? Sonic didn't look like he was going to do it again, but he wanted to know.  
"S-sonic? I-I might have b-bit you, b-but you h-hurt me? D-did you enjoy it?"  
Sonic hadn't expected such a question, although he was able to understand why Tails was asking. Because Tails had been hurt for nothing all his life, and people had enjoyed doing that.  
"No Tails. I did not enjoy doing that. But it was the only way to stop you from biting me again. I tried talking to you but you just didn't listen."  
"I... a-are you m-mad at me now?"  
"A little, yes. But not because you bit me, you apologized for that. I'm still a little mad because you also yelled some bad things."  
"I... yelled?"  
"Yes. You said you hated me, my house, and the blanket."  
"H-how can I s-say that...?"  
"But you seemed very upset when you said it. I suppose you don't remember that either?"  
"...N-no. Y-you're so n-nice, the house is n-nice and the bl... b... bl..." Tails couldn't say that last word.  
"Blanket?"  
Tails nodded, with fresh tears in his eyes now that he heard the word.  
"Is that what this is all about?"  
Another nod.  
"Tell me about it."  
And so, with many tears, Tails told Sonic 'the story'.

* * *

It was winter. And it was cold. Really cold. And it had snowed. Miles didn't like snow. He couldn't run as fast as he usually could. Run from others.

He had found a blanket a few days ago. Sure it was old, and very thin, but anything that helped against the ice cold wind was heaven. Apart from old shoes and dirty gloves, it was his only posession. Well not technically a possession: he had found it in the trash. He had hid it in his secret sleeping place in the woods. He loved his blanket. The feeling of something wrapping around you, the knowledge this blanket had once been really warm, he had slept so much better since he found it.

He was sleeping, the blanked wrapped around him, dreaming about how warm it was. It was really warm, maybe a bit too warm for comfort. But a fireplace was also too warm if you sat directly next to it.  
Fireplaces...  
The crackling of the wood, he could hear it in his dream. The nice smell the burning wood gave, he could smell that too - wait, since when did you _smell_ things in dreams? This wasn't right.

He jolted awake, the instant he did that being grabbed by arms. Panicking, he glanced around. He was surrounded by bullies, two of them having grabbed him and forcing him to see what was happening in the middle of the circle they had made.  
His blanket.  
On fire.  
Burning.  
He kicked snow on it in a desperate attempt to get the fire out, and was met with a snowball in his face.  
"_Don't_ try anything funny, freak, or we'll break your legs. Just be glad we don't hit you for a change." one of them shouted, and the rest laughed. Miles could do nothing but watch as his beloved blanket was reduced to smoking rubble in a matter of minutes.  
"I just love snow." one of them said. "How we can follow you even when we can't see you." before pushing him face first into the snow, next to what little remained of his precious posession. Miles realized they had simply followed his footprints.  
That night, he had cried all night long...

* * *

It was quiet for a while after that, the only sounds Tails' occasional sobs. There was just nothing to be said: Sonic was taking in all what Tails had said, while Tails still felt sad. Although it did feel like a weight was lifted from his shoulders, now that he had finally told someone after such a long time. Sonic just stroked Tails' back, until he caught him staring intently at his own bed.  
"Tails are you, staring at my bed?"  
"...n-no?"  
"Lying gets you nowhere, you know that."  
"...okay... y-yes...a l-little..."  
Seems more like 'a little' to me, Sonic thought.  
"You want to sleep in it?"  
"Yes! I-I mean, if I can?"  
"I don't see any problem. But were you afraid to ask?"  
"...yes..."  
"What do you think is the worst that could have happened if you asked it yourself?"  
"I...don't know?"  
"I would have said 'no'."

No hurting. No taunts. No fake apology because he asked. Just a simple no.  
To Tails, this whole being treated in a fair way was so new, almost unnaturally nice. Well, Sonic wasn't always nice, he learnt that when Sonic put him on the ground. But looking back on it, that _had_ been fair from Sonic, and Sonic had said he didn't enjoy it.  
It looked like he had finally found someone who didn't judge him because of his tails. Yesterday, that had been a far-fetched, impossible to achieve thought: fairness. But here he was, in Sonic's bed, being tucked in and wished goodnight. He almost wanted to cry again, because Sonic was so overly nice, but he was too tired and just fell asleep. A very nice and relaxed sleep for a change.

It was now Sonic's turn to lie awake for a while.  
Thinking, how none of this would have happened if he had decided to continue jogging just _one_ second earlier.  
How the kit would then still be out there, and most likely dead by the end of the month.  
How little he actually knew of the kit, not even his real name, or age. He didn't really care about those two: the kit seemed to accept his new name, and age mattered little anyway. The one thing that really mattered right now, was that Tails was asleep next to him. There was no way he would allow Tails to go back to where he came from. Remembering how he had promised to look after Tails until he had a home, he got an idea: 'What if I can make my home, his home too?' And with that thought, Sonic also fell asleep.


	3. Sick

Author's Note: In this story, Amy isn't obsessed by Sonic. They are just good friends. She's a little older than Sonic, and has a job and a car.

I also used more paragraphs this time, I hope it reads better this way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic etc, though you already knew that

* * *

**Sick**

The next morning, Sonic was the first to wake. Tails was still sleeping peacefully, so he just let him sleep and took a shower.

When he came back, Tails was also awake. "Good morning Tails." Tails looked at him, at least he remembered Sonic, but his mind seemed to be somewhere else. "Sonic... ow... my head... it... it hurts..." Sonic grew worried, he hoped his tackle from last night didn't have anything to do with this. "What's wrong?"  
"Aaah! Ow... my ears!" Tails was almost crying.

Sonic had expected that a good night's sleep would do wonders for Tails, but it seemed to have done the exact opposite. He looked very bleak, which should be impossible considering the amount of dirt in his fur. Maybe he was just sick... Amy had been sick once, and she asked him to talk very quietly. _But Tails probably wouldn't dare to ask that... _He reduced his voice to nothing more than a whisper, and asked "Is it better if I talk quietly?" Tails began to nod. "Owwwww..."  
"I think you're sick Tails."

Upon hearing that, Tails' face changed to fear. Twice he had been real sick, to the point of not even wanting food, and bullies had taken advantage of that. He didn't want to be sick now, or ever really. "I... don't... w-want... to be... s-sick." Tails stammered, very quietly. "Well it does look a lot like it. What was the last thing you ate?" Tails thought for a moment, then answered "F-fries."

Sonic was suspicious for a moment, as there was no way Tails had money to _buy_ such things, but then got a feeling where it came from.  
"When was that?"  
"T-three... days... a-ago..." _Well at least it's not food poison then, that should have been noticeable earlier. But three days is a long time, the kid has to be starving right now._ "Are you hungry?"

To say that Tails was hungry, would be the understatement of the year. He was very thin, and his belly let out a loud growl as to answer the question. If he said yes, chances were high Sonic would give him some. Food. He craved it, but right now the thought alone already disgusted him. "..n-no.." "Then you're sick. Which means you're staying in that bed until you get better. Although, you are taking a bath first little guy."

Tails was barely listening: he registered the words 'sick', 'bed' and 'bath' somewhere vaguely, but that's all he got. He just wanted to sleep, but wasn't strong enough to resist Sonic lifting him out of the bed and carrying him gently to the bathroom.

The bath was nice and warm, and Sonic tried to make as few splashes as possible. Despite being sick, this didn't go unnoticed by Tails, but he was too tired to open his mouth to thank him for being as quiet as possible. In fact he was so tired, that if it wasn't for Sonic he would have drowned right there.

The bath didn't take long. Sonic's intention had been to get Tails really clean, but that could wait until later. At least the majority of dirt was gone now, as the color of the water confirmed. He then remembered the sheets of his bed were really dirty now, and had also seen quite a few loose hairs in it. He would have to clean that first, as well as get some pyjamas for Tails quickly.

As he was drying him off as best as he could, he noticed a big scar on his left foot. _Well, I'll probably find out what did this some day, though I'm sure I don't really want to hear it... _Tails' fur was still a bit damp, so Sonic put his bathrobe on Tails, and slowly took him to the living room to dry completely. Besides, he needed to change the bedsheets anyway, Tails wouldn't want to be around there. "Tails, just sit here, sleep if you want to. I need to call a few people, and change the bedsheets. Soon after that, I'll put you back in bed." Tails didn't respond, he just sat there, and dozed off a little.

After removing the old bedsheets, Sonic opened the window to let the room freshen up. Then, using the phone in the study room, he called Amy.  
"Urgh... SONIC! You know it's my free day!" came a quite angry sounding voice from the other end of the line. Clearly, he had just called Amy out of bed.  
"Amy! I'm really sorry but I have sort of a situation here."  
"Can't this wait until later? I wanna sleep some more. And can't you talk a little louder?"  
"I can't explain now, but please, can I borrow some of your pyjamas?"  
"Are you insane! You called me out of bed for that? It's not like you wear pyjamas anyway!"  
"They're not for me, but please, just trust me on this one. I'll explain when you get here."  
"Okay okay, I'm awake now anyway. Any specific color?" Typical Amy. Seriously, lives may depend on it and all she worries about is whether it is the right color.  
"Just pick the smallest ones you can find and be here as quickly as you can. And Amy? Knock very quietly."

And with that, Sonic hung up. It wasn't very nice of him to call Amy awake on her free day and just break off the conversation, but she could just go on and on about everything. He knew she would get here, as it wasn't like him to call people awake for no reason. He just hoped she would remember to knock quietly and not break down half the door.

Amy was fuming mad, of course. She hated being called awake, especially on her free day and this early. Sonic's weird request and just hanging up just added to her frustration. On the other hand, Sonic had never talked this quietly before, and he wouldn't call her awake just to play some joke on her, she knew that.

She quickly got dressed, selected her smallest pyjamas, which all happened to be pink, and started her car. It would be a 15 minute drive at least, so there really was no point in rushing and overtaking everybody.

Sonic was already on the line with his doctor. His doctor was very nice, and quickly understood that this needed attention. He would come by at two in the afternoon.

With that taken care of, Sonic put clean sheets on both his real bed and the improvised one, closed the window and went downstairs again. All that was left now, was waiting for Amy to show up, which didn't take long. Soon, quiet knocking was heard on the door, and Sonic went to answer it, closing the door that separated the living room from the hallway.  
"Sonic! What the hell!" Amy was obiously still mad at Sonic for calling her and the weird request, but was sensible enough to keep the volume down.  
"Come in to the hallway, but be very quiet, we don't want to disturb him too much."  
"Him? Who's him? Did you call me out of bed because of him?"  
"Yes."  
"Is he in the living room?" asked Amy, already walking towards the door, when she was stopped by Sonic.  
"Amy wait. He's very sick, and also very shy. He just wants to sleep, so if I can have a set of pyjama's now I'll put him back to bed. You'll see him on the way up, but please don't stare too much at him, he doesn't like that. OK?"

The way Sonic said it, didn't give Amy much choice, so she handed him one of the pyjama's. She still expected to be pranked any moment, but gave him the benefit of the doubt for now. After all, it appeared she had brought pink pyjamas for a boy, and Sonic didn't even make a comment about it.

Sonic explained to Tails that he could go upstairs now, and that there was someone in the hallway he shouldn't be afraid of. Naturally, Tails was afraid, but well, protesting against it wouldn't help anyway. So he slowly went with Sonic, glancing at the person Sonic had said would be there for a second. His vision wasn't really clear, all he could make out was a pink blob. Upstairs, Sonic said he needed to wear some pink thing if he was going back to bed, and while it did occur to him that it would look very funny, if it meant sleep he would instantly do it. When Sonic covered the blanket over him, he was already vast asleep.

As the living door room opened, Amy had expected anything but what she actually saw. First came out Sonic, in one hand holding the pyjama, and holding someone else's hand in the other. The second that other person looked at her instantly replaced any irritation caused by Sonic's phone call by sadness. It looked like a very sad and very young fox kit, and although she had no idea what it was doing here, it was obviously very sick. She did remember not to stare too much, but couldn't help noticing the twin tails dragging along the ground when they went up the stairs.

When Sonic was back downstairs, they had a long discussion about the kit. Amy wanted to know all about what little Sonic knew of him. When he accidentally told about the nightmare, he realized Tails might not like anyone besides Sonic knowing that, and he made Amy promise she would never mention it. He wasn't even sure if he was gaining the kit's trust or not, but if he was, Tails certainly wouldn't like the idea of Sonic telling his friends about all his nightmares.

Eventually, the thought of making this Tails' home too surfaced, and Amy found it a great idea. She said that maybe he could officially adopt him, because face it, who else would want to adopt a super-shy, bullied for years fox kit with two tails? It would cost a lot of time and money, and their summer holiday savings would probably go into it. It was basically the choice between going on vacation and dumping Tails, or not going on vacation for a change and saving Tails with it. Both didn't care that much about vacation suddenly anymore, but especially Sonic would need some thinking time, because well, it would have pretty long-term consequences.

Since Sonic wasn't going outside to do shopping because of Tails, Amy offered to do it for him, and maybe buy him a pyjama in a more proper color. He was glad Amy wanted to help, and for food, it certainly would come in handy. But he didn't want her to buy pyjamas, a toothbrush and so on, simply because it would probably mean a lot to Tails if he could choose himself. And when something means a lot for Tails, it's usually pretty normal to ayone else.

They brunched together, after which Amy left to (try to) enjoy what was left of her free day.

At exactly two o'clock, the doctor knocked quietly at Sonic's door. "Hello Sonic. Where is the patient?" It was what he liked about his doctor: always straightforward, even if he hadn't seen Sonic in years. "He's upstairs, probably sleeping. I'll go and wake him."

As he expected, Tails was sleeping, so it took a few minutes until he was sort of awake and Sonic had explained that a very nice doctor was here for him. After that he got the doctor.

The meeting was short: after telling what he was going to do, he felt Tails' forehead, removed the bandage, felt a bit around the wound, and placed a new bandage on it. "Okay kid, that was all, go back to sleep now." the doctor said softly, and nodded for Sonic to follow him. Tails had been a little afraid of the doctor, though Sonic's words were true: this doctor was indeed very nice. One didn't need to say 'sleep' twice to kid, before Sonic had closed the door and glanced a last look at Tails, his eyes were already closed.

"Well Sonic, it doesn't look like it's infected, the wound isn't deep, it's just big. I'll come check up on him in a few days, just don't remove the bandage or get it wet it the meantime. He just has a very high fever, I've seldom seen something this severe and that had been in times of breakouts. It could be some kind of shock reaction."  
"Shock of what? I didn't do anything really weird I think."  
"I don't know, anything. It might be just the sudden warmth of being _inside_ a house. Just do what you normally do with fevers. Lots of water, a little bit of food but expect most to come out again. And give him something that makes lots of noise, because he won't be able to shout for help if he needs it. But call me immediately if he seems to get worse."  
"Alright that should work, I guess." They talked for a little longer, until the doctor announced he had to visit more patients.

Sonic rummaged through the house, trying to find something noisy for Tails, until he remembered: the christmas tree decorations! There was a very annoying bell in there, he didn't even know where it came from, and he never hung it in the tree. But it was perfect for now.

He had to imprint on Tails to not be hesitant to use it, and don't feel sorry if he did, even in the middle of the night. Tails wouldn't want to use it without a real reason anyway, because the annoying tingling would hurt his ears too.

* * *

The rest of the day, as well as the next few, wasn't very eventful. Twice a day, Sonic would get Tails out of the bed, to at least get some fresh air into the room. He usually also changed the sheets, as Tails was sweating a lot because of his fever. Tails slept most of the time, and when he wasn't sleeping, he certainly wasn't awake.

Sonic looked up information about adoption on the internet, but got confused by what different sites said, and all sorts of conditions they would have to meet. He ended up calling the adoption bureau, where a very friendly voice told him they got that often. And that in the end, the conditions didn't really matter that much as long as it appeared to work out. They made an appointment for the next Tuesday, provided Tails was better by then, and they would just see what was possible. Although both of them should expect to have to answer difficult and personal questions.

On Friday, the doctor came by again, and renewed his bandage. The wound was healing well, next Friday he could remove the bandage and it should be completely gone by then. Tails was visibly recovering now, and the doctor warned him that soon, boredom would set in, because he would have to stay in bed until at least Sunday afternoon. Sonic had already foreseen that, and had asked Amy to buy a car magazine, so that in the very likely event that Tails couldn't read, he could at least look at the nice pictures.

Tails being sick gave Sonic plenty of time to think about the consequences of adopting him. Apart from summer holiday savings, it would mean more expenses in general, thus needing to find a job. He was sure that things would change in the house, but in what way, he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure about a lot of things, actually. The only thing he knew for sure, was that he didn't want Tails to go back to the streets. That, and that the kit had been right: he did have a cold now.

* * *

About the pyjamas: on Mobius, they are not worn for warmth. They are very thin, and most furred animals wear them because it keeps loose hairs from spreading all through the bed. Most girls wear them too, although that's more for fashion reasons (and shopping). I'm not generalizing anything here, but Amy likes to shop. A lot.


	4. Talk

Wow this certainly took me a lot longer than I expected. I'm still not 100% satisfied with it, but I want to move on to the next chapters, where Tails will actually start doing something. For now, read on and you'll get to know some new things about him.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic etc, though you already knew that

* * *

**Talk**

It was Saturday morning now, and Tails felt so much better then he had in the past few days: he was awake, color was returning to his fur, and he wanted to do something. Something that didn't involve getting out of bed, because as much as he wanted it, Sonic had threatened to punish him if he did. Fair punishment, in the form of having to stay even longer in bed, but even that didn't appeal to him.

Thankfully, Sonic also gave him something to eat, and they talked for a long while, almost the entire morning. Now that he was getting better, he had expected Sonic to start asking him all about him and his past, which he wasn't exactly looking forward to.

But he didn't. Instead, he started off telling him about all the things to come if he was going to live here, at least a while until he found him a real home. Tails' idea of a home had always been that is was just a place to sleep and eat, but if what Sonic said was true, it was much more than that. There were rules to follow, and he would get punished if he broke them. Some rules were spoken out aloud, and some not, and sometimes, you even had to break rules, like waking people up in the middle of the night. That was one unspoken rule he had actually already broken multiple times, once because of a nightmare, and for a glass of water when he was sick, but because of the situation, hadn't received any punishment for. Right then, it had been the right thing to do, and that's how it was with everything: if someone didn't say anything about it, he was probably doing it right. Of course, Tails was still worried about punishment, and Sonic was quick to explain that when that happened - "And trust me, it _will_ happen someday" - he would never hurt him in the way all those bullies did. And it wouldn't be without reason, too, because it would only happen if Tails had done something very wrong.

But well, all that didn't really explain why the kids who didn't really bully him (but just ignored him like he wasn't even there) were usually so happy all the time. There had to be something else, too, because rules and punishment on top of food and sleep, how can that possibly keep them happy all the time? But it seemed that Sonic had saved that part, the best part, for the last. That living here also meant doing things together, like eating, dishes, watching TV, playing games. And while Sonic wasn't going to thank him everytime he helped with something, that didn't mean he didn't appreciate his help. Though the most important thing, by far, was that a home is a place to be safe, protected from the outside world. A place where he would feel and be welcome, anytime, and want to return to at the end of each day.

Tails had never done anything together with someone, or been welcome anywhere. Sure, Sonic was nice to him, but Tails wasn't too happy about it because Sonic had to do a lot of effort for him. Sonic let him sleep in his bed, and brought him food and water. He had even called a doctor, and Amy, just for him! Just then, Sonic concluded what had been mostly a monologue, "And I think you're starting to feel at home here already."

How could Sonic say that! He had to admit it was much better than outside, on his own, in the cold. But Sonic had promised to find him a real home, so why should, or could, he feel at home here, whatever that felt like, if this wasn't supposed to be his home anyway?  
"..I...do?"  
"Lots of little things Tails. For one, you've changed your eating habit since you've been here."  
What did that have to do with it anyway? He couldn't remember eating in a different way than he had always done, and even if so, what difference did that make? Since he wasn't answering, Sonic continued "When you were just here, you ate your food very fast, and kept spying on me. I don't know why you did that, but... over the days it became less, and you totally forgot to spy on me at all this time."

Tails knew exactly why he did that, to keep others from stealing it. And, he really didn't do that this time? Truth be told, he was focusing more on how good it tasted, than being bothered by his surroundings here. He still found that Sonic did way too much effort for him, but on the other hand, he never made any attempt to steal anything from him. Looking back, Sonic had always just sat there, waiting until he was finished. He had just thought that the food Sonic gave him magically became more delicious each time, which was weird because Sonic just gave him dry sandwiches all the time.

Then it struck him: could it really be that food became more delicious if he was given the time to eat it slower? That, plus the knowledge that the person next to you wouldn't steal it at the first oppurtunity? Sonic interrupted his train of thoughts again, "Were you afraid I was going to steal it from you?"  
Tails nodded, sad because it was true.  
"Hey don't be sad, you've probably had to do that all your life, but you know what I think? I think it's just great that just now, you ate your food in a completely normal way."

'Normal.' That was a word Tails would never associate with himself, and yet Sonic did. It filled him with happiness, and a smile appeared on his face. All he could say was just one word: "Wow..."  
"It makes you happy, doesn't it?"  
Being here definitely wasn't bad, it was how much Sonic did from him that made him feel so guilty about it. It still was better than anything though, so he answered "Well... yes" but the hesitation was evident in his voice.  
"What's wrong with it Tails?"  
Tails told him about how everything here made him happy, but he felt so guilty about it, especially since he couldn't do anything to return the favor. 'Sonic's going to hurt me for sure now - wait, why is he laughing?'  
"Haha, oh Tails! Don't think about yourself in that way. You were just sick, it's normal that you don't do a lot then. And even then, you still do a lot by starting to eat normal and so on. You'll get your chance, didn't I tell you how you're going to help me with lots of things?"  
"It's... normal?"  
"Sure."  
"B-but... doesn't that cost you m-money?"  
"Oh don't worry about that. I must admit that, if you're going to live here for a while, I will have to find a job a little earlier than I had planned. That's my decision to make, not yours, and I think it's worth it. And tell me, do you ever see other kids buying their own food?"  
"Y-yes... candy, coo-" but he didn't get to finish because Sonic cut him off: "_Real_ food Tails, things like bread and milk."  
"Oh... then no..."  
"Indeed, they don't. And you don't have to either. Whatever it takes, I just... don't want you to go back to how I found you."

Tails was still trying to get used to the idea that people might do things for him, and all he had to do was just be around. It was just so hard to believe, that Sonic wasn't doing all this just to revenge on him later. "You... you really mean that?"  
"I do. So much in fact, that I want to ask you something about my promise to find you a home."  
"Wh-what about it?" Tails asked, fearful that Sonic might break the promise.  
"Well, I've been thinking about it, and... maybe this could become _our_ home?"

What a brilliant idea! And here he was afraid that Sonic might say something bad about it. Finally having a place to call 'home', it would be the best thing in the whole world! Or... maybe not. Maybe it was 'just' the second best thing... Because every night, and he still silently did that here, he wished for just one thing: his parents. Everybody had them, or at least knew them, but Tails couldn't remember his own. Not their names, what they looked like, or where they lived. Nothing. He knew nothing of them. And despite that, no-one could replace them, ever. But he always hoped that they at least remembered him. That around the next corner, there would be two foxes, or whatever they might be, who would recognize him as their son, and they would love him for that. He would go home with them, and live a happy life, like all the other kids. It was this hope, that had kept him alive all those years. He knew they might have given up looking for him, or not want him back at all, but at least, then he had seen them once.

But... what if they found him if he had been living with Sonic for years? What would they think of him? What if Sonic didn't want him to go back to them?  
And if he could, would he have to say Sonic goodbye... forever? He didn't want to say goodbye now, and it would get even harder over time. Tears formed in his eyes as more sad thoughts took shape in his head. He was torn between Sonic's well-meant offer, and his one true wish. It was just too hard for him.

"Tails? What's the matter? I thought you would like being in a home?"  
Through his tears, he managed to answer, "I do..."  
"Then why are you crying?" And just like he had done when they met, Sonic stroked his back. It felt so nice when he did that, and for a while, it was the only thing happening. After a while, Tails had built up enough courage to tell Sonic about his parents.

Sonic understood him, and he promised the kit he would help him in finding them. Because he too wanted to know why Tails was abandoned.  
And of course Tails could go back if they found them, even it it meant saying goodbye forever. Yes, that would be a sad moment for both of them, but the knowledge that Tails was then with the ones he had always wished for, would make him happy in the end. That would be worth it all, even if it took years.

Though he wasn't planning on taking years to find them, and it was here that he introduced the adoption bureau to Tails. Sonic explained that it was to give him really the feeling of a home, officially. It would also make some things a little easier for himself, like receiving a bit of money every month to help in raising Tails, but that wasn't the purpose. They would also try to find Tails' parents, he asked about that when he called them earlier that week. He saw Tails' ears perk up when he mentioned 'parents', and added that going there didn't mean he _had_ to be adopted. They would want to know everything of Tails, and himself too, but they were very nice and would understand if Tails cried.

He ended by letting Tails make the decision whether they should go there this Tuesday, another day, or not at all. After a long silence, Tails answered the question with another question, "I think I want to go, b-but... are you going to my d-dad then?"  
That was a question he wasn't expecting, but he knew the answer immediately "No. I can never replace him, and I don't want to. If you want to think of me as family, I could be..." Sonic took his time to find the correct word, fully aware that what he was going to say now, might be the very way in which Tails would see him for the rest of his life. Things like uncle didn't really fit, and anything further than that wasn't really close family anymore. Just then, a perfect way popped into his mind, and he finished "your big brother?"

There were a few seconds of silence, the only happening Tails' growing smile, before Sonic noticed it and continued.  
"Yeah that might work. And you can be my little brother then. You think you can try that for a while?"  
"Yes! That would be so cool!" and before he knew it, Sonic found himself hugged by Tails. It was a great moment, where Tails seemed to have forgotten all about his shyness. It seemed he didn't realize what he was doing, so before he did and would undoubtly apologize, Sonic pushed him off and asked casually "Soooo, are we going there then? The adoption bureau?"  
"Yes..." was his answer in a blissful voice. Happiness was literally radiating from the kit now, and though he wanted to know some more things about him, that could come later. He had seen the number of yawns increase over the last few minutes, the whole discussion must be tiring out Tails. So he tucked him in, Tails loved it when he did that, and told him to get some more sleep. Walking towards the door, he goodbye'd him, but never got a reply.  
Glancing back one last time, the kit was already vast asleep again.

Making himself a quick lunch, Sonic reflected on what had been quite a conversation. Not just in terms of length, but also depth. He didn't get that much new to hear, but Tails certainly did, and it gave him a better idea of his character. Tails was very shy and timid, and seemed to fear that anything he did might lead to punishment. Well he couldn't really blame him for that. The kit was also sensitive, little things meant a lot for him, and could make him very sad or happy.

It was quite hard for Sonic, to be patient with Tails, especially when he was sad. But at the back of his mind, there always was the image of how he found Tails. He wouldn't have found him at all if he hadn't waited one more second that day.

And then there were those few moments, where Tails forgot all about his usual shyness and caution. That hug meant a lot for Sonic, it was so spontaneous, almost _unlike_ Tails. Were these glimpses of his true personality? What more was there?

Only time could tell that. Right now, Tails was getting better and seemed to be genuinely happy to be here; the hug just showed that the kit wasn't faking it. Sonic hoped that if he just kept doing what he was doing, the rest would come eventually. Which meant that apart from patience, it shouldn't be that difficult. And was, randomly glancing at his good old Nintendo 64 standing next to the TV, instantly proven horribly wrong.

The Mortal Kombat cartridge was sticking out of it, at first reminding him how a week ago, Knuckles had come over and they played a lot of classic games deep into the night, ending with this. That had been a great night, like so many other video game nights he had with his friends. And then he thought of Tails. How what they did for fun in a game, was the reality of the day, and probably night too, for Tails. It must have been one big nightmare for him, with no end in sight. It made him realize just how much he must mean to Tails, as he might finally be ending that nightmare. Tails was beginning to trust him, but that would be gone just as quick if the kit knew he had this. He would find out eventually, if he didn't already knew games like this existed, but it would probably help if he wasn't reminded of it the whole time.

Sonic almost wished he never played the game in the first place. _Almost_, because despite being brutal, it also held many great memories for him. That is, if you count video game nights with friends and sleeping on the couch as great, but still, he couldn't just throw it away. That would be throwing away the memories, and he didn't want that. At the time, it had been great fun.

If he couldn't throw it away, he would need to hide it, so he took out it out and did the same with the most violent games in the see-through plastic box with the other cartridges. It occured to him that, when you think about it, almost every game contained some sort of violence, even Mario Kart. But he quickly shrugged that off: if he was that overprotective, there wouldn't be much left. And what on earth would there left to watch on the TV for Tails then? 'TV... oh crap! My DVD collection!'

There was more to Tails living here than he had initially thought. He would have to be careful with what Tails could watch, and channel surfing would be a pastime of the past. Seeing even a fraction of a horror movie or something as he zapped past it wouldn't do the little guy much good.

And so it was that what had once been quite a collection, was now reduced to about a handful of movies. The rest, together with the violent gammes, were put in a cardboard box, on which he wrote "SONIC". One advantage of Tails being shy and honest; the kit would never, ever, stick his nose in a box that had someone else's name written on it.

Some other things went into the box too, like a very fragile glass... thing. Amy had given it to him long ago, and he never liked it. He wasn't scared that Tails would break it, in fact, he would secretly be happy if he did, but Amy would probably be mad at him then. This was the perfect oppurtunity to finally get rid of it, in a way that Amy would understand.

Satisfied that the living room was now 'safe' for Tails, and knowing that the rest of the house wasn't really interesting, he put the box in the garage and played some of the games that remained. He became engulfed in it, coming to levels he had never played before. When he had played much too long, and the clock said that it was past four o'clock already, he heard a loud crash from upstairs. No crying or moans of pain though, that was weird. And good, because he wanted to finish the level first. But when he looked back at the screen, it said 'Game Over'. He hadn't paused the game, and lost his last two lifes in that short time. 'Oh well, better go and check what that noise was. I've played way too long anyway.' and he switched off the console and TV.

Even though he was now only a few steps away from the door to his, no, _their_ room, he still heard nothing. Whatever the noise was, it either hadn't disturbed Tails, or he was doing a very good job of not crying. So he opened the door slowly and silently, not really sure what he should expect to see.

Tails was not in his bed, and he hadn't heard footsteps so he wasn't in the bathroom either. The blanket looked really strange though. Wondering where Tails could have vanished to, he took a few steps into the room and got his answer. Tails was still sleeping, just as he had told him to do, it was _where_ he was sleeping that put a smile on Sonic's face. The loud crash had been the sound of Tails falling out of bed, and he had just continued to sleep on the floor. It was so cute, and Sonic had to resist the temptation to get his camera. 'It's a shame I have to wake him...'  
"Tails, you really need to wake up for a moment" he said in a soft voice.  
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..." Tails rolled over, but didn't wake.  
"It's me, Sonic."  
Finally, he got a reaction from Tails, who slowly opened his eyes as he spoke. "Sonic? Is that y- whoa! Where am I?" Tails was sitting upright now, wildly glancing around.  
"It's okay Tails, I'm here. You just fell out of bed."  
"Sonic!" Tails was obviously happy to see him, and he added "Funny... I also dreamt I rolled out of bed..."  
"Really? What a coincidence!" Sonic played along, but Tails missed his comment.  
"But in my dream, I landed in another bed, not on the floor..."  
"Wow. That must have been a nice dream. I'm sorry I had to wake you from it." Tails also missed his apology, instead his face suddenly changed to fear.  
"D-do I have to stay l-longer in bed now?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"W-well, going to the b-bathroom doesn't count, b-but-" He never got to finish his sentence, because Sonic knew what Tails was aiming at now, and cut him short. "Oh that! No of course it doesn't count, you didn't do it on purpose. I just said that because while you feel better, your body needs a little more rest. And believe it or not, you've been sleeping for almost four hours already."  
"Wow... that's long." and climbing back into the bed, Tails' belly let out a growl.  
"Someone sounds like he could use some more food. Do you another slice of bread?"  
"Yes!" Tails exclaimed, before quickly adding "please?"  
"I'll get you one, but Tails, you know what I said about 'please' and 'thank-you's?"  
"Oh... ohyeah, I remember..."

It was just another loaf of bread, no topping, but it was fresh, and it wasn't difficult to see that Tails was loving it. Their talk that morning really achieved something, because this time too, Tails didn't spy on Sonic. He also noticed how he didn't leave a single crumb; the plate was so clean one could have thought it was never used.  
"Well, that's all you're going to get for today Tails."  
"Oh... okay. It tasted delicious Sonic." Tails always managed to show his appreciation in some way.  
"I'm glad to hear that, but there are much better things than what you just got, you know?"  
"There are?"  
"Yeah, but I'm not giving you those yet, because I want to see this stay in first, plus the doctor told me that you could be sick again if I did."  
"Again? I don't want that! But... how does that work?"  
"Well, the doctor said I had to ask you what and how much you ate, and slowly build up to what a normal person eats. Because something tells me you didn't get a lot of food before we met."  
Tails' happy expression was now fading, being replaced by a very sad one. "N-no... I didn't..."  
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it now. But if you talk about it, I can probably give you much more delicious things."  
"M-more delicious?" the disbelief in his voice was hard to miss.  
"Oh yes. _Much_ more delicious."

Since there wasn't much else to do, Tails told him how little he usually got, if he was lucky to find anything at all. And that sometimes, he didn't find anything for three or four days in a row. That really wasn't a lot, and Sonic explained that if he was so used to so little, giving him three full meals now would definitely make him sick. "And especially no inbetween snacks for you in the beginning." He could see Tails was having a hard time telling, and hearing, all this. He was sad, and pressed himself closer against Sonic. "Hey don't worry, you'll still get at least as much as today, everyday, okay? And one day, you'll eat just as much as I do. I want that just as much as you want it." Tails stayed silent. Sonic had a vague idea of where Tails 'found' his food, but he needed to make sure, and wondered how to open up to the subject. In the end, he just went straight for it.  
"Tails, please, I know it's hard for you, but I really want to give you something nice tomorrow. Please tell me the rest?"  
"S-sonic?"  
"Yes Tails?"  
"Wh-when I looked through windows, I always saw h-happy people, and the f-food smelled so good. A-and I was so h-hungry..." He didn't get further than that, and broke down crying.

Sonic couldn't even imagine how hard it must have been. Days without food, alone in the cold, that was bad enough, but being bullied and seeing happy people _with_ food everywhere... How did Tails survive all that? There wasn't much Sonic could do about it, and it certainly didn't answer his question. But Tails obviously needed to get something off his chest, and let him do just that. "It's okay, cry it all out."

It lasted a good ten minutes, after which it finally reduced to a few sniffles and sobs. "Here let me up and I'll get you a glass of water." Tails let go of him, and not a minute later, was telling what Sonic wanted to know. Apparantly, he just needed to cry it out, and though he cried quite often, Sonic certainly didn't think of him as a crybaby. He wasn't 'using' it because he wanted something, Sonic could see that he was more than happy with what he got here.  
"I-I usually ate things like f-fries, hamburgers, p-pizza. I don't know why people say they l-love it so much, it all tastes horrible. B-but well, it was f-food..."  
"Wow wait a moment Tails, most people find all that delicious, where on Mobius did you get them if the tasted so bad?"  
"F-from the t-trash..."  
Tails stated it so matter-of-factly, so cold. Like it was just everyday business - 'oh wait, it was...'. It also confirmed Sonic's earlier suspicion. "Blergh, no wonder they're horrible." Horrible was quite an understatement, the idea alone already disgusted Sonic, but to actually eat it...  
"...o-or the ground..."  
"Aaah stop it Tails, it makes me sick."  
"Can you get s-sick from words?"  
"You're a smart kid, you know. No, I won't get as sick as you've been when you say something like that, but it's still disgusting. In fact, so disgusting, that I'm making a rule about this. Do you want to hear it?"  
"If-if I say no, I can't break it, r-right?"  
"Wrong answer Tails, try again."  
"Oh... I want to hear it?"  
"That's better. Anyway, the rule is that I forbid you to say where you got you food from before we met, even when I'm not around. Also, if I or anyone else asks you if you've ever eaten something, and you have but it came from the trash, you must say no. And with trash I mean any nasty place normal people would never eat food from. Am I clear?"  
"Yes, but... what if someone really wants to know?"  
"Try to change subject, say you don't want to talk about it, tell them you lived on the streets, that sort of thing. They should get the hint, but not using the actual words is a lot better."  
"B-but what if they don't take the hint?"  
Tails was now playing out worst-case scenario's, but Sonic wasn't going to think about _everything_. So his answer was very short, "Then they must be really stupid.

It was quiet for a moment, until Tails got this huge grin on his face, and started giggling.  
"Okay what's so funny Tails?"  
"N-nothing."  
"Really, I want to know."  
"N-no. It-it's about you... and not so nice..."  
"Well you still find it funny, so just tell me."  
"I-I won't get punished if-if I do?" Tails asked, still not sure whether to tell, and the fear of serious punishment evident in his voice.  
"I don't know. Probably not because at least you find it funny."  
"Well... you just called yourself stupid. You knew I lived on the streets already, a-and you still wanted to know."  
Kid's logic. Undefiable. He couldn't help to laugh a bit himself too. "OK you got me there Tails." he admitted, before adding in a stern tone "But do you really think I'm stupid?"  
Tails' laughter died down instantly. "N-no. A-are you mad now?"  
How could he be possibly _mad_ at someone as cute as Tails? "Of course not! It was actually quite a good little joke. As long as you remember that the other person, in this case me, is not _really_ stupid. They just didn't take the hint."  
"Oh.. okay"  
"And I already had a feeling you got your food from there, but well, I needed to make sure."  
"I s-suppose so..."  
"Where were we anyway... Ohyeah, I wanted to know, did you ever eat something _not_ from a nasty place?"  
"W-well, a warm soup van was sometimes in town, b-but I avoided that after bullies waited me up there... Sometimes, people gave out cookies on street corners, I always tried to get some. And when it was warm outside, all sorts of berries in the forest. Does that last one count as a nasty place?"  
"No that's a good place. In fact, most people would be jealous at you for that one."  
"Really? How come?"  
"Geez Tails, how many questions can you ask? Berries straight from the woods are much more delicious than those from the store. You should show me some time, we can make delicious things with them. Or at least, Amy can."  
"Is-is she a friend?"  
"A very good friend. You'll probably meet her soon, maybe she can be your friend too."  
"Really? I've... I've never had a f-friend before..."  
"Friends are a great thing Tails. But hey, you want to know something about the food you're going to get here?"  
"Yes?"  
"Well, you're not used to much, so I think it's best that you start with just breakfast and dinner. But since you ate pretty much anything, they can be exactly the same as mine. A lot smaller, but otherwise the same." He said it quite plainly, like it was nothing at all, and realized only afterwards what a tremendous impact it would have. The kit wouldn't care how small it was, because he had already said he would get enough. 'More of the same' was the factor that always made Tails happy, 'the same as everyone else.' And seeing Tails being happy, that made Sonic happy too.

There was one small problem: while what Sonic said made Tails tremendously happy, he was obviously not going back to sleep now, and he was out of subjects to talk about. He now knew everything he really needed to know, yes of course he could ask Tails more about his past, but Tails wouldn't like that, and neither did he. Then he rememebered what Amy had bought for Tails: the car magazine! "Hey Tails, I asked Amy to buy something for you. Wait here while I get it for you." and before the kit had any chance to turn down his offer, he was already gone.

"Here, this is for you" and he literally pushed the car magazine into his hands. Tails couldn't do anything but accept it, although he was still very timid about being given something.  
"F-for m-me?" He hadn't even looked at what Sonic had given him yet.  
"Yes, yours. I hope you like it."  
"Th-thank you... a-and Amy, of course." It was only now that he looked at what it actually was, and exlaimed "Ooooohh! Cars!" He looked at a few random pages, Sonic just looking at the smile on his face, although he hoped the pictures would keep him occupied for long enough. "Wow... a Lamborghini! The Lamborghini..." Tails' eyes seemed to be searching for something on the page, found it, and finished "G... Gala... Gallardo?" not using the right intonation or accent.  
"Uhh I don't think that's how you pronounce it, let me see it?" Tails turned the magazine, showing a page dominated by a yellow Lamborghini, and Tails pointing towards a specific word. "Ah, Gallardo" said Sonic, using the right accent. "It's Italian, Tails."

Then, something clicked in Sonic's head. Anyone could recognize a Lamborghini, they were usually yellow, just like this one. But Tails didn't appear to know it was a Gallardo beforehand, and he was pointing towards a _word._ That meant.. he could...? "Waaaait a second, you can read?"  
"Not very fast, but yes, it's not really difficult." Tails answered, not even looking up from reading about the Lamborghini, and saying it like it was nothing. Sonic noticed how, just like with the hug earlier, Tails acted completely normal all of a sudden, but right now, he was more interested in where Tails learned to read.  
"How... how did you learn it?"  
"Myself," again still reading.  
"Wow... Can you write as well?"  
He got Tails' attention with that question, "...No... I wish I could..."  
"Hey don't worry, you'll learn. But I'm going downstairs now, you just enjoy your magazine okay?"  
"Okay, bye Sonic!"  
"Bye Tails."

Downstairs, Sonic took a moment to recollect what exactly happened after he gave the magazine. When exactly did Tails' mood suddenly change from timid to happy normal? That had been... at the moment Tails had actually looked at what Sonic had given him. He wondered whether the reaction would have been the same if Amy had bought a horse magazine. 'Heh, probably not.' Of course, even then Tails would have probably said he liked it, but this was different. It couldn't have been more obvious that Tails absolutely loved cars, and that if it were just an old magazine he happened to have lying around, the kit's reaction would have been exactly the same.

After making himself a simple meal, Sonic decided to surf channels one last time, and ended up watching a random B-movie. It got cop car chases, lots of crashes and random explosions, so it was quite watchable actually. They broadcasted the sequel right after that, but it wasn't half as funny and he turned it off somewhere during the film. The director had tried, and failed, to improve the plot with a romantic element, completely ruining the utter pointlessness of the original.

It was late enough already anyway, so he turned off the TV and went upstairs. The moment he entered the room, he was met by a very excited Tails.  
"Sonic! This magazine is so cool!"  
Tails was obviously enjoying the magazine enormously, so he decided to play along. "It is? What makes it so cool then?"  
"It's got pictures of nice and very fast cars, and lots of interesting text about all of them! I also learned that the Lamborghini Ga... Ga..." Tails forgot how to pronounce it, but Sonic remembered and helped him out, "The Gallardo?"  
"Yeah that one, it can go over 200 miles per hour!"  
"Wow, that's really fast."  
"Yeah, and- funny, that sounded just like my name..." The sudden remark got Sonic's attention.  
"I don't remember saying or hearing anything sounding like 'Tails'?"  
"No no no my _real_... name... oh..." it was only now that Tails realized he had said way too much.  
"Really? What's your name then?" The look on Tails' face told him that he hoped he wouldn't asked that question. But well, he did bring it on himself.  
"P-promise you won't l-laugh?"  
"I won't. Though I hope it's not Gallardo." Sonic hoped his little joke wouldn't upset Tails. Thankfully, it didn't.  
"Haha, no it's not that, it's... it's Miles... Miles P-prower..."

True to his word, Sonic didn't laugh. "Miles Prower? What's so bad about that? I've heard much weirder names."  
"People make j-jokes about it..." Sonic wanted to interject here that that's quite normal every once in a while, but Tails continued "L-like I'm not w-worth the S b-because I can only do one mile per h-hour." While Sonic could easily come up with a situation where it could indeed be funny, the sadness with which Tails said it told him he got this way too often.  
"Oh... That's not a funny joke." Tears were in Tails' eyes; this was probably just the tip of an iceberg.  
"P-please don't tell anyone my r-real name, S-sonic..." So far, all Tails had asked from Sonic were simple things like a new glass of water. Never this much.  
"I won't. I'm used to calling you Tails anyway. If you still like that name?"  
"I... I really like Tails. B-but are you going to make j-jokes about that too?"  
"Only if it's a really good one and I think you'll find it funny too.  
But if you don't find it funny, I'll be sorry and not make it again."  
"Oh..." Tails said, obviously not convinced.  
"It's different than what you're used to."

The discussion was going downhill, and he wanted to change to something nice before going to sleep. "Hey Tails, what is your favorite car from the magazine?" That did the trick, with his attention diverted, the tears dried up.  
"I... don't know really. They're all so nice. And... so expensive..."  
"They sure are... that's why you don't see them everyday. Did you ever see one?" Sonic wasn't really into cars, about the only thing he did know was that he had never seen anything like in the magazine. But maybe Tails had, that might be one happy memory from before they met.  
"Yes! I did! Only once... It was beautiful..."  
"I've never seen one..." Sonic said, almost sounding jealous.  
"Oh... I'm sorry"  
"Don't be sorry, you were just lucky to see one that's all. Do you remember what it looked like?"  
"A bit... I'm sure it's not in the magazine, but I've always wanted to find out what is was..."  
"Hmmm..." Sonic was thinking. "Maybe you can..."  
Tails looked at him expectantly. "I... can?" he asked, hopefully.  
"I said maybe. You'll see tomorrow what I mean. You just dream about all those cars now, you have a big day tomorrow."

Glancing one last look in the magazine to remember where he was, Tails obediently closed it, and then put it on Sonic's nightstand. Sonic almost found it strange, Tails didn't even ask or seem to realize he put it there, he just did it. For some reason, that car magazine was really doing something to him. "Goodnight Sonic!"  
"'Night Tails."

* * *

In case you're wondering, Tails really feels like he shouldn't cause any inconvenience for anyone, ever. But seeing Sonic as his big brother makes it a lot easier for him to accept that it's okay if Sonic does something for him.

Personally, I don't really like this chapter, but am satisfied enough with how it turned out. It has a few good moments, and I like how I revealed Tails' real name, but it's a bit on the long side, and some transitions are not really smooth. I also tried to keep perspective changes to a minimum this time, that was quite challenging (and fun) to do.


	5. Better

I sometimes have these moments where I can write thousands of words in a few hours, and other times, I can sit for hours and nothing comes. With college starting again, I have less time overall, and as such, less of those inspired moments. But when I do have them, I write chapters like this one.

I enjoyed writing this one, it just feels so much less forced than the previous one. I admit it it's long and detailed, but it works (I hope). I'll shut up and let you enjoy the new chapter now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic etc, though you already knew that

* * *

**Better**

Finally, it was Sunday! Only a few more hours now, thought Tails as he woke to the sounds of Sonic coming up the stairs. Seeing he was awake, he entered the room and greeted Tails. And then he said that if Tails wanted, he could come out now, on the condition that if it was necessary, he would have to sleep or at least lie in bed for a few hours in the afternoon. And that whether he came out now or in the afternoon, he was going to take a bath today.

Well, if that had to be done anyway, he would probably be spending more time _not_ in the bed by coming out now, so he did. Though he did ask Sonic if this would be okay with the doctor, because hadn't the doctor said Sunday _afternoon_? Sonic explained that it had been more of a guess of the doctor, and that if he was still sick or very tired, he would have had to wait until another day. It was just the first example of many to come, were things weren't turning out to be as black-and-white as Tails had initially thought or hoped.

But he had other things on his mind right now, as not only did Sonic let him out, he also got breakfast, and was trying to make a decision on what to put on his slice of bread. 'Choose anything you want, though if you choose sprinkles, put this on you bread first' was all Sonic had said, pointing towards the margarine. Even when Sonic added that cheese or meats probably weren't such a good idea right now, due to recently being sick, it still left Tails with an awful lot of choice for his standards. Actually just sprinkles, nutella, and strawberry jam, but still, it wasn't until Sonic was halfway through his second sandwich that he finally made a decision. He chose strawberry jam, reasoning that he had eaten the fruits on the label of the jar in the forest sometimes. Those had been wild strawberries, but they were very delicious, so maybe, this jam thing was delicious too?

After making quite a show of not using one more drip than was absolutely necessary, followed Sonic encouraging him and ending up with about four times as much as he initially had, he was ready to take his first bite. It still wasn't what one would call a rich sandwich by far, but still, it was delicious. Since Sonic was going for a third one anyway, he took his time, enjoying the good taste of it. He remembered he was doing exactly what Sonic had told him about the day before, about gobbling it up versus enjoying the taste. He definitely liked the latter a lot better. And this was so much more delicious than the dry sandwich the other day, he was almost a bit angry at Sonic for not letting him have another one. Almost, because apart from the fact that being sick again didn't really appeal to him, he was also happy enough with what he got. Ever since he'd been here, he sometimes felt like wanting some food, but it was never that hungry feeling he knew so well from before. And right now he felt so full that he wondered whether he could actually eat another whole slice of bread.

Since Sonic was still busy finishing his third sandwich, he passed the time by looking a bit around the room. He had been there quite often already, when Sonic was changing his sheets again, but all he did was sleep then. Now though, he was really awake, and he could see it more or less matched his expectations of what he had seen looking through other windows. The sunlight was shining through the window, and while outside it was cold and white, inside it was nice and warm. A wooden floor, a rug here and there, a sofa, some chairs, a very low table. He never understood why that table was so low, but well, it didn't look out of place and he saw those often, so apparantly, that was normal. All in all, it was just such a nice place to be, so welcome and warm, so safe.

Safe. That's exactly how he felt right now. No-one hurt him here, not counting what Sonic did to his wound and when he had his nightmare. But those were a different kind of hurting. If people tried to _really_ hurt him, his big brother Sonic would stop them.

But what if Sonic wasn't around one day? That wasn't even a question, it was bound to happen eventually. What if people knew he was here, the people he'd been running from all his life? Would they do what they always did to him? Or worse, destroy Sonic's belongings in the process? Would Sonic hate him and throw him out, because after all it was his fault? Was this nothing more than a short interruption of his 'normal' everyday life? Sure, he wasn't exactly looking forward to the day when Sonic would eventually punish him for something, but he didn't want to leave here.

He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear Sonic stand up and walk over to him, softly saying his name. 'Tails'. Everyone hated them, himself included. It wasn't until he felt a hand on his shoulder that he registered someone was trying to talk to him. But when he looked up and saw who it was, it only served to fuel his sadness, and burst out crying. The one who was trying to comfort him, was the same one who would throw him out in a few hours, days, or weeks at most. And then hate him, just like everyone else. Nothing would change, and he would spend the rest of his life the same way he had spent it so far: hurt, alone, hungry, hoping for parents who were never there. And always remembering, how the only person to ever be nice to him, eventually turned against him. The person who gave him the car magazine that made him so happy, and would probably be burned or otherwise destroyed before his eyes. The magazine he never finished reading, because he left it in a place he could never retrieve it on his own: on Sonic's nightstand, in Sonic's bedroom, in Sonic's home. Not their home, _Sonic's_ home.

While more sad thoughts continued to emerge, and still not listening to a now quite worried Sonic, there was something up with the magazine. He had put it on Sonic's nightstand, but... he never asked... and Sonic never said anything about it... Hadn't Sonic explained that if he did something without asking, and no-one said anything about it, then he did it right? Well, at least he would have done _something_ right in his life, though it still did little to derail the rest of his thoughts. He had no doubt that Sonic would be really mad at him if people destroyed Sonic's belongings because of him.

But the small distraction was enough for him to recognize Sonic's voice again, sounding quite mad. Or was it worry? Worry about what? About him? Why should anybody worry about him? More and more things flooded back into his memory, Sonic being his big brother among them. 'A brother is family, and... family should be there for each other... is he really worried about... me?' He finally listened to his ears again, and registered Sonic's words: "Tails... please... it's me... Sonic... say something..." He just stumbled the first word that came up in him, which happened to be Sonic's name.

Glad that Tails was finally hearing him, Sonic offered him his hand, so that Tails had something to hold. Tails immediately grabbed it: if he just never let go of it, none of all that could ever happen! He knew he would have to let go eventually, but still, just holding it calmed him down. It was only when Sonic kindly asked him if he could let go, as it was starting to hurt, that he realized how hard he was squeezing it, and he reluctantly let go.

Like all the previous times, he now had to tell Sonic why he had grown so sad all of a sudden. Not once was he interrupted, though when he was finally done, there was a difference with the previous times. Those times, Sonic had comforted him, or come up with a solution, but now... there was just silence. Why wasn't he comforting him now, when he needed it more than ever? Was he mad at him, for finding the story way too far-fetched? Or worse... did Sonic believe him, and was he now trying to find words to explain just how... mad he would be at him when it happened?

Tails became more and more upset by the moment, and resorted to the only thing that had ever saved him from something, or at least stalled it: run. Run away as fast as he could, and hope his pursuers would give up the chase. In an instant, he had reached the front door, but to his frustration it was still locked. He couldn't get away, and when he turned around to try and find another exit, Sonic had catched up with him already and was now blocking the only other way. This upset him even more, but just as he was about to charge at him in the hope of getting past, he realized this was exactly the same situation as when he had the nightmare that first night. Sonic wasn't making any attempts to get any closer to him, he was just preventing him from getting away. Maybe he was just overreacting, and Sonic didn't mean any harm. "S-sonic?"

But there was no response. Why wasn't Sonic there for him now? Had he done something wrong? He was sure he hadn't bitten him this time or something like that, but... he had still tried to run away. And thinking about it, if the door hadn't been locked, he would have succeeded in that. Was that what he wanted? Give up on what might be his only chance to live a normal life already, all because Sonic didn't answer him right away? Had Sonic ever done something truly unnice to him? No.

By now, he had calmed down a bit, and regretted he even tried to run away in the first place. "Sonic? I'm... I'm sorry I t-tried to run a-away... again..." The last word had some effect on Sonic, though still he wasn't answering. Tails continued, the words coming straight from his heart now: "I-I was so scared, you didn't s-say anything, and I didn't know what happened to me. I don't know if you're going to p-punish me now, but if y-you are... I'm... I'm still glad that the door was locked..."  
He told the very truth, and now Sonic did too: "Tails, that means a lot coming from you, though I won't punish you. I just needed to think about what you said, find the right words, and I'm sorry if that upset you. But please, just tell me if something's upsetting you next time okay? Don't run because that doesn't solve much."

Not getting punishment for trying to run away was something very new for Tails, though he would have accepted it if Sonic wanted to give it. Essentially, Sonic just apologized for not answering fast enough, and said that him trying to run away was something more important to worry about than whether getting punished or not. "I'll... I'll try... I promise..." He didn't even know how he was going to fulfill that promise, as these things happened without him thinking about it, but... he would try. That was the least, and also the most, he could do.  
"Good enough for me. Are we friends again?"  
"F-Friends? Are we not b-brothers anymore?" Tails worried because usually, a friend meant (a little) less than close family.  
"It doesn't have anything to do with that, it's just something people say when they're ready to forgive and forget something that just happened. So we're still brothers yeah."  
Sonic's statement served to make Tails realize just how much he would have to learn to become even slightly 'normal', not only in terms of simple things and habits, but even more so about complex things such as friendship. And that Sonic was probably going to be the one learning him most of it. "...F-friends..."

A smile appeared on Sonic's face when he said that, and now he came closer and took Tails' hand. "Come on, let's get back to the living room and I'll tell you what I was thinking okay?"  
"okay sonic" Tails answered in a small voice, not having much of an option other than to go with him.

Sonic explained that he didn't find the whole idea that far-fetched actually. He had seen what they had done to Tails, and if Tails said they might come here, than he had no reason to disbelieve him on that. And no, he wouldn't be too happy if they actually did and broke down the place. But there was one thing Tails must always remember: it wouldn't be _his_ fault, and he wasn't going to be mad at _him_ for it. He would be angry at the people who did it, and at himself too, for not looking out good enough, but not at Tails. "You don't want them to come here, so it's not your fault. Well, unless you invite them over yourself or something and I find out of course" Sonic added in a lighthearted way.

Of course Sonic had the right to be mad at him then, but yeah, he really would never do that in the first place. In other words, apart from the fact that Sonic definitely didn't find it impossible, he had little to worry about. "Just try not to think about it too much, okay Tails? If it happens, just... let it happen, and be done with it." No, Sonic definitely didn't deny the possibility, yet the words filled him with new strength. He promised he would try, the knowledge that Sonic wasn't going to be mad, at least not at him, making a big difference. "I was just done eating anyway, wanna help me clean the table?"

Tails knew Sonic had said he wouldn't have to help until tomorrow, but also that if it was the other one who asked, then it was his own choice. Of course he wanted to help! There wasn't that much to do really, he just set his own plate on the kitchen counter, and handed Sonic the strawberry jam, but the fact that the other clearly appreciated it, that filled him with joy. It only took a minute or so, followed by Sonic simply stating "Follow me."

Tails wasn't one to really disobey orders, but this felt more like a question than a direct order. No-one was preventing him from walking the other way, yet he still found himself following him upstairs. When they reached the bathroom, he remembered this was probably about that bath Sonic had mentioned. Looking at himself in the mirror, he wondered why he had to take another bath so soon anyway, it wasn't like he was dirty or anything? He questioned Sonic about it, and in return got a crash course about personal hygiene, and the difference between clean and not dirty. Apparantly, he would have to do this at least two or three times a week, and when the bandage came off, he could take showers instead. The most important things to remember right now were how much soap he had to use at least, where to put the towel after he was done, and to use Sonic's bathrobe afterwards because otherwise he would catch a cold, just like Sonic had done when he used his shawl for his wounded arm.

Tails wondered why Sonic was telling him all this, until he seemed to be satisfied with the water level and temperature, and made prepares to leave.  
"Sonic wait! You... you're not going to... help me?" Tails sincerely hoped he was wrong on this, but no.  
"Nah. I think you can figure out yourself when you're clean enough, or when it's time to get out. Don't worry, I'm not going to be angry with you if you don't do everything right the first time. But I think you're smart enough to be doing this on your own. I mean, you know what soap is for, right?"  
Tails nodded. He knew exactly what soap was for, he just never got the chance to use it. "There you go. You're not going to learn much if I do everything for you the whole time, and I need to learn what you can and can't do, too. Though I'll leave the door ajar if you want, so you can shout if you're really lost?"  
"Y-yes... leave it open please..."  
"Don't worry, you'll do fine."

And on that, Sonic left and went downstairs, leaving him alone. He had to do this all on his own. No-one was going to help him. Why was he so intent on making him doing this? He had promised he would try not to run away again, besides, Sonic would definitely hear if he did. He was trapped, and even though nobody was forcing him, there weren't any other options either. Which meant that when he took off his shoes and stepped in, he did it sort of on his own accord.

As soon as he was in though, at the last moment remembering to keep the bandage dry, he wondered why he was so scared about this whole bath thing at first. The warm water was incredibly relaxing, he even allowed himself to just lie there for a few minutes, doing nothing but enjoying the water, before setting to the task at hand.

He didn't know how long he was in there, but after a while, he noticed the water starting to become colder. Not uncomfortably cold by any means, he knew how that felt, just not as nice and warm as it was when he began. There were also less bubbles now, and he had used enough soap, a little more than what Sonic said, actually. Maybe it was just time to come out, but if this was what a bath meant, than he was already looking forward to the next time! There was also a funny, though definitely not unpleasant feeling all over his body.

The first thing he did after stepping out was giving himself a good shake, completely oblivious to the water literally flying everywhere. He knew what happened if his fur got soaked, he wouldn't need a mirror to confirm that. He'd seen his reflection in store windows and puddles before, and knew that with his fur flattened by the water, he looked twice as small as he already was. But since the door was left ajar, the mirror hadn't fogged, and out of curiosity he couldn't help but glance a look. The sight that met his eyes, was one he wouldn't forget in a long time. Yes, he was tiny. But the white and orange of his fur had never been this bright and contrasting before. It looked so not like him, he actually had to make sure by checking he indeed had two tails. It had to be him, but he found it hard to believe.

He tried blaming the soap, or the funny feeling, for not letting him think straight. But as he started to dry himself off, and his fur started to return to its normal shape, the bright colors remained. The funny feeling, although a bit less now, also remained. Was this what Sonic had meant by 'clean', as opposed to 'not dirty'?

Sonic leaving the door open not only meant the mirror hadn't fogged, it also meant that it was quickly getting cold now. He quickly finished drying himself off, or at least up to the point where he wasn't getting any drier anymore, and put on his shoes and Sonic's bathrobe. Leaving the towel in the indicated place, he glanced around to see if he wasn't forgetting something. He knew the water was still in the bath, but Sonic hadn't said about draining it, so he left it. He did notice that all the bubbles had disappeared now, leaving nothing but the water itself. It was now colored about what one would call lightgrey, and he found it a little hard to believe that what he thought was clean before, did that to the water. But it's time to show Sonic!

He was so overfilled with excitement to show him, he didn't realize he was running down the stairs, until he heard Sonic yelling at him from the living room. "Tails! No running in the house!" He stopped immediately. Was he running? Sonic didn't really sound mad at him, though it was clear he didn't want him to do it again. 'I must have broken one of his rules and... he's not punishing me for it? Wow! But I should say sorry.' He couldn't even see Sonic, so he just talked to the wall, hoping Sonic would hear it. "Sorry Sonic." No full explanation, just one word: sorry. Would that really be enough?  
"Hah it's okay, come on in."  
It really was enough. He knew he would have to be more careful next time, but he really didn't know it before, and Sonic wasn't mad at him. Careful not to let himself loose this time, but still walking a little faster than usual, he quickly found Sonic sitting on the couch, reading the TV magazine.  
"Sonic! Sonic! The bath was really nice and... and... when I looked in the mirror... I..."  
"Well? What did you see?"  
"... I didn't believe that it was... really me... and there's this weird feeling all over me?"  
"That's because you're really clean now. You look and smell like it too." Tails believed Sonic on the looks part, if being clean meant looking like this, then wow. But smell?  
"S-smell?"  
"That's the soap. How much of it did you use anyway?" Tails used his fingers to indicate how much he had used, and admitted that it was a little bit more than what Sonic had said. He had expected Sonic to not like using too much, but was suprised when he heard he had done it just right.  
"But uhh Tails, you really shouldn't wear something on your feet right after a bath or shower. Really, I don't wear mine inside the house either, I don't see why you can't do that either. But especially not right now."

That hit something sensitive. Normally, Tails wouldn't require much convincing to believe something from Sonic, but his shoes were different. Worn down as they were, he kept them on 24/7, even at night, for one, simple reason: _no-one_, not even Sonic, no-one got to see his feet. He feared what people would think about his left foot. And while he himself has learnt to live with it, he didn't want to be constantly reminded about the events of that one night so long ago. That, and from a practical point of view, bullies couldn't steal his shoes without him knowing it this way, so it had just become a habit. The only times he didn't have them on were when he was swimming in rivers in the summer, to keep himself at least somewhat clean.  
"No" he said firmly.  
"No? That's not the right answer, and you know it little guy."  
"okay... Why?"  
"Apart from the fact that those shoes have been outside and make the house dirty, it's bad for your feet if they're not completely dry." His shoes weren't waterproof anyway, one step outside and they would be soaked again. He had worse thing to worry about than whether his feet were dry or not.  
"S-so? I do it all the time." He wanted to sound strong, but innerly, he was scared as he would probably lose this argument. He never won any argument, and being beaten in one meant just that, literally.  
"Uhhhh... it's also bad for your shoes?" Sonic sounded like he was losing hope of convincing Tails, and since Sonic hadn't hurt him on purpose since he was here, Tails took that oppurtunity to become bolder than he'd ever been in his life.  
"It's not like they can get much worse before falling apart anyway!"  
"Which is exactly why you're getting new ones soon, and I don't want them ruined." He was getting new ones? Really? How? When? No! He couldn't permit himself to think about that, it would be submitting to Sonic, and he wasn't going to do that.  
"I... I don't need new shoes..." he lied. He knew he was a bad liar, but he could always try. Maybe Sonic wouldn't notice it, but deep inside, he knew it was a miracle his shoes had survived so far, and that it wouldn't be much longer before they actually did fall apart.  
"You're lying Tails. Now tell me what you're hiding." Argh! Why couldn't he just lie like everybody else! It would make things so much easier! He knew he was losing, but he was now desperate to find a reason to not have to tell Sonic his reason.  
"No! It's not fair! At least you have socks!"  
"Indeed. Am I wearing them right now?" Sonic almost sneered. This was stupid. He wouldn't need to have a look to know that Sonic wasn't wearing shoes, or socks right now. Yet he did. He just had to make sure. But no, Sonic wasn't wearing anything on his feet right now, and he hadn't even taken a bath or shower like himself.

Tails was defeated, and if he wasn't already going to get punished for lying to Sonic, not cooperating now would only make it worse. He sighed, and started "I..." Preparing himself for the laughter, and then punishment that would undoubtedly follow once he said it, he steeled himself and blurted it out. "I-don't-want-you-to-see-my-feet..."

Tails' face went red as he said it, he couldn't be more embarassed. He had made a complete scene about such a silly reason. And it wasn't difficult to see that Sonic was on the brink of bursting out laughing. Tails dared to say how he felt about his reaction, instead of doing nothing and letting the other do whatever he wanted. "Stop laughing! It's not funny!" Still, Sonic was giggling. "Sonic!"  
"Oooh! I'm sorry Tails, I know it isn't funny, but still, you could have just said it in the beginning. Though I think I know why you don't want others to see them."  
"W-w-what? Y-you know?"  
"This is just my guess, but this isn't about 'feet', is it? It's only about one of them, am I good so far?"  
Tails didn't how or why Sonic knew this, but he had to admit, he was right so far.  
"Right or left?" asked Sonic. Tails considered asking why he didn't just say it immediately, see if he really knew, but well, he had lost the argument, and should now act like it.  
"...left... h-how do you know?"  
"Remember the bath I gave you a week ago? I've seen it."  
Doh! Tails wondered how he could be so stupid not to realize that. Yeah, he could remember now how he was sleeping after that, and woke up only to put his shoes back on, and then return back to sleep. He just hadn't thought much of it at the time.  
"B-but... y-you don't need to know?"  
"Absolutely not. Probably I don't _want_ to know it, either..."  
"N-no... y-you don't want to know..." Tails grew sad as pictures of what happened that night entered his mind.  
"Don't worry, I'm not going to force you to tell me, or anyone, about it. It's your secret, you're sensitive about it, and I respect that. I'll just buy you some slippers you can wear inside the house if you want that." Apart from the initial laughing, Sonic was dead-serious about the rest.  
"Th-that is a good s-solution... S-so... you're not m-mad at me?"  
"Not really, though I will be if you don't take them off now. And slippers or shoes, don't wear them when you're sleeping, okay? I'm not going to keep on changing the sheets forever."  
"Wh-why didn't you just say so when I got here?"  
"The first night, I just let you do what you wanted. I was going to tell you the next day, but then you got sick, so I let you. You've been through enough trouble already, so the least I could do is let you wear them if they made you feel better or safer. Now that you're better though..."  
Sonic didn't need to finish his sentence before Tails started to take off his shoes. He apologized for making such a scene about it, but Sonic didn't really mind. Actually, it would have been more worrying if Tails would just do something that bothered him so much without any hesitation. And he subtly added that in the end, Tails had still partly won, even if he would also have gotten the slippers if he just said it immediately and not made a scene.

After Sonic changed the bedsheets one last time, both this time, now would be a good time to comb Tails' fur into at least a presentable shape, not with tangles everywhere as it was now. But right then, Amy called, and since she wanted to see him anyway, they agreed that she could do it. She was much better at it then Sonic anyway.

So the rest of the morning Tails was allowed to just wander a bit around the house, open all the doors and see what was in all the cupboards. Apparantly, _all_ doors included the other one in the hallway, the door to the garage, which was also locked but always had the key in it. While the garage was mostly empty apart for a bicycle and some boxes with Sonic's name on it, there was also a lot of food. Tails had thought he had seen a lot of food in the freezer and fridge, but this was enough for a whole year! Sonic explained to him that it was for a whole month, plus some emergency food. Once in a month, he and Amy went with her car, and bought a lot of long lasting food at once. Then about twice a week, Sonic would take the bike and buy fresh, fast expiring things and whatever was depleted in the garage. And that since he was sick, Amy went alone this week and also had to buy a little extra for Tails.

It made Tails feel important, no, that wasn't the right word. Loved, or cared about, that would be a better description, that people bought extra food, just because he was there. That he wasn't the only one who needed to change habits, others did too, and without blaming him or complaining about it. Trusted also, because Sonic just trusted he wouldn't sneak in there and eat something, even if it was within reach. The key was just an anti-theft measure: should a thief get into the garage, they still couldn't get into the rest of the house. Tails found that a very smart and safe idea.

Apart from other cool and less cool things, a black van with red details in the living room was particularly interesting to him. He innocently asked what it was for, since it was certainly not a toy car. It turned out that it was the boxset of The A-Team. Of the few things Sonic had hidden for Tails, he had totally forgotten about it, as it wasn't next to the other DVD's. Since Tails was always so honest, Sonic admitted that it was a TV show featuring the black van Tails found so interesting. And a lot of gunfire.

Tails was put off by that, he didn't want anything to do with guns, or violence in general. But Sonic added that there was a difference between real and fake violence, and this was a prime example of obviously fake. Apart from news and reality, which were two things Tails wasn't going to get to see, just about everything on TV was faked. Sure, sometimes it looked very realistic, and people could appear to get hurt or even die, but as soon as the camera stopped filming, they were friends again. In this particular show, people seldomly got hurt at all, and Sonic went as far as saying that if he really liked the van so much, maybe he should just give it a try tonight, maybe he would like it, and if not they could just turn it off.

But well, they would see about that later in the day, because since they were on the subject of cars anyway, Sonic remembered he still had his toy cars from when he was young. Tails would probably like to do something else than reading his magazine the whole day, so he offered that he could play with them. It wasn't really necessary to tell him to be careful with them, though he still made clear to Tails that no matter how upset he got, he couldn't take out his frustration on the toy cars. Those cars were memories of Sonic's own youth, and he wanted to preserve those.  
Anyway, Tails loved the cars, and soon, imaginary roads and parking spaces were made on the wooden floor. In fact, Sonic had to restrict him to a certain area of the living room, to prevent cars all over the living room, though it was still a big enough area.

Tails enjoyed himself until Sonic told him it was time to get a little bit of sleep, or nap-time as he worded it. Upstairs, and already wearing Amy's pyjama, he came to a dilemma. He could sleep in Sonic's bed until he was better, but... he was better now. And he could see Sonic had changed both sheets this time. One thing he knew was that he wasn't supposed to sleep on the bare floor, should he go downstairs and ask now? Even if Sonic said he should be upstairs now?

Reasoning that staying up wasn't an option, he really needed a little bit of sleep now, and that Sonic would hopefully understand, he went silently downstairs again.  
"Sonic?"  
"Hey Tails, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be upstairs?"  
"Yes, but... where am I supposed to sleep?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Well, I'm better now, right? And you said that I could sleep in your bed until I was better."  
"Oh that! I just said that so that you would get enough rest while you were sick. Tell you what, how about you can choose where you want to sleep now, but what you choose now, is where you'll sleep for about the next two weeks, until I clean the sheets again. Does that answer your question?"  
"Yes. Thank you Sonic, I'll go back upstairs now."  
"That's a good boy. Bye Tails."  
"Bye Sonic!"

He went upstairs with a smile, happy to have made the right choice in asking about it. Free to choose his own sleeping place this time, he remembered how the blanket had given him such a nightmare. Then again, the bed had a blanket just as well, so maybe it had just been bad luck. Since when did he believe in luck? And since when was bad luck still better than an average day until a week ago? Well... he was very lucky that Sonic found him that day, of that he was sure. And what better way to show how much he appreciated all that Sonic did for him, than by letting him sleep in his own bed again?

Content with his decision, he laid down on the mattress, asleep in less than a minute. Not dreaming about anything good or bad in particular, just taking a very peaceful afternoon nap.

To be continued...

* * *

Originally, I was going to do the whole Sunday in one go, but as I'm already at about 6K words on this one, I decided to split it up here. It just turned out like this, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Anyway, it's great to see that Tails is already making progress, though I don't have to explain he still has a very long way to go.

In reply to **Guest** who left a great and helpful review: yes, I thought about that beforehand. We're talking about Sonic's promise not to mention Tails' real name to anyone, and how that's going to hold when they go to the adoption bureau on Tuesday. Let me point out that when Sonic made the call, he didn't even know his real name yet, and it's also in Tails' interest to find out about his parents, so he isn't just coming along and do nothing there. But I'm spoiling too much now, you'll just have to wait until that chapter is done.

Reading a bit through all the reviews again, I just want to say to **Tails is FLUFFY** that yes, there will be shopping soon.

See you all next time.


	6. Amy & Shopping

I received multiple comments on the 'left foot' thingy. In chapter 3, it is mentioned that Tails has quite a big scar there, and from the events in the last chapter, you should be able to deduce that he doesn't really want to talk about it. He has somewhat accepted it over the years, but being reminded of it alone is enough to kill any (happy) mood he might be in. That's why he got so upset when Sonic told him to lose the shoes.I hope that clears things up for some people, I'll answer the rest of the questions at the bottom of the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic etc, though you already knew that

* * *

**Amy & Shopping**

A little more than an hour later, Amy arrived, and after some chatting and a cup of tea, Sonic went to get Tails. The kit was a little annoyed that Sonic woke him 'already', but that changed when he heard that Amy was here. Sonic lent him a pair of his socks, which he obviously appreciated, and quickly went downstairs.

Well, not as quickly as he hoped he would, as he found out that socks had no grip at all! But still, he was eager to meet Amy, something that amazed all three of them. Then again, the two of them had talked about her more then once, and Tails had more or less set himself to like her from the start.

They talked for a while, with Tails asking what kind of work Amy did, how old she was, and, naturally, what sort of car she had. Amy told him she worked in a beauty salon in town, had just turned sixteen, and that she had absolutely no idea about her car. "It's red and it drives" were her exact words. Vice versa Amy asked him some questions too, but nothing personal or something that might make Tails sad. Sonic had asked her not to do that, so she settled for things like whether he liked the car magazine she had bought for him.

As much as the kit enjoyed talking with her, the real reason she was here was because his fur was still an absolute mess. However, as she began unpacking her bag and more and more tools came out if it, Tails grew worried. With the memory of what happened at breakfast that morning still fresh, Sonic interrupted Amy: "Uhm Amy, don't you think you're overdoing it?"  
"I thought you said you wanted his fur to be beautiful?"  
"I said I was going to get the tangles out of it, not giving him a makeover. Besides, just take a look at him..."

Amy had been so busy with her tools, she had totally forgotten that Tails was a bit different than her regular customers. She could tell he was scared, like he was expecting her to do something bad to him. "Oh Tails, I'm sorry! I-" was all she could say before Sonic whispered something in her ear. "You should probably put away most of the things you unpacked first, I think he doesn't like them."

She was surprised that what Sonic whispered to her actually worked: the moment the scissor disappeared into the bag, Tails' fear disappeared too. Tails quickly forgave her, saying that he didn't know himself why he grew so scared all of a sudden, as it was very unlikely that Amy was going to do something bad with them. She did not want to think about what that implied, darn, she just did. And Tails said it so innocent, so completely oblivious to the obvious answer. But it was probably better that way, so she let it pass, instead focusing on getting his fur done.

She had sometimes wondered how someone would look like if he didn't do anything about his fur for years. Of course, that sort of people never went to a beauty salon either. However, now that she had her answer, she hoped it would never happen in the future as well. Essentially, Tails was just one big tangle, and even after untangling, hairs kept bending back the way they had been for years. On his head were three tufts of much longer fur that wouldn't stay down at all and constantly sprang up; she gave up on these after a while. The worst were his tails though. She knew from experience that tails were hard to keep completely still, but if the other wasn't moving them on purpose, she could normally hold them still enough. Not with Tails though. They had a will of their own, and his active life had lead to them being much stronger than usual. Even if he tried his hardest to keep them from moving, they would still move away on instinct everytime the brush touched. In the end, Sonic had to help by holding one tail, while keeping the other away from Amy.

Finally, more than an hour and a half later, it was done. Save for his feet and the bandaged part of his arm, the fur on every square inch of his body was now somewhat the way it should be, or at the least much better than it was before. The three tufts of fur on his head she had given up on earlier, actually looked very good now that the whole picture was complete. Tails wasn't really able to describe how he felt about it when he looked in the mirror, but he didn't need to either. He was happy, and trying to thank Amy for all that she was doing for him, but was failing at making sentences.  
Amy just patted him on the head, giving him the brush saying that tomorrow, he could do it himself. Tails got his voice back when the brush was more or less pressed into his hands. "But.. But... don't you need a brush for yourself?" Both Sonic and Amy laughed at that, and Amy explained that she had _plenty_ more at home. "And it's full of your hairs now anyway, so keep it."  
"Oh... okay. Thank you Amy. But will it take this long tomorrow again?"  
"Haha, no. If you do it every morning, it will just take a few minutes. Although... your fur is longer than usual, so if you had a busy day you might need to do it in the evening as well. That reminds me... I have something else for you... wait a moment."  
"Amy, what I have told you about buying things for him?" Sonic asked her, while she was rummaging through the bag, and Tails was curiously watching what would come out of it.  
"Yeah I know... but... where is it... I wasn't even looking for it... a-ha! There it is!"

Proudly, she held out out a toothbrush. "I needed one myself, so I was searching for my favorite color, when I saw this one. I know you're probably going to teach him to not care about the color just like yourself, but... it just reminded me of him so much." Sonic had to admit, she had a point. There were many colors of toothbrushes, and Sonic never cared which one he bought. And he would learn Tails to not care about something like the color of his toothbrush. But he would also let him choose a color the first few times, and he knew it would be this one.

It was orange-and-white, exactly Tails' colors.  
"Alright, if he likes it as well he can keep it" Sonic said.  
"It's... it's exactly my color!" Tails exclaimed, and Amy had to giggle. Tails obviously liked it, and while he inspecting it more closely, Sonic quietly told Amy that 'it would come in handy tonight'.

After a minute or so though, it fell quiet. Sonic knew that the kit would never ask if he could go and do something else, especially with Amy around, but it was clear that his attention span had long expired. "It's alright Tails. Go do something you like, Amy and I will be here if you need us."

He read some more in his magazine, and soon, Amy announced that she had to go home again. They wished each other goodbye and all that, and then they were alone again. Which meant that he could _finally_ take those itching socks off! He liked Amy, he really did, but he was also glad that she was gone, as peace and quiet returned to the house again.

Sonic normally never cooked on Sundays, but although it was bitterly cold last week, he hadn't really cooked much because he didn't want to let Tails smell it, and also because he just didn't feel like it. He was craving a good warm meal right now, and since Tails wasn't showing any signs of his breakfast coming up, he decided he would just take the chance. The moment he started working on it, Tails was immediately right beside him. The kit was too small to see what he was doing, which was quickly solved by getting a table chair, making him just as big as Sonic when he stood on it.

Half an hour later, two plates were served. Both had rice, green beans, and part of a hamburger on it, in the same ratios. The only difference was that Sonic's part of the hamburger was three times as big as Tails'. And there wasn't any sauce, because even though Amy had just done shopping, Sonic's way of organizing the food in the garage, or rather the complete lack thereof, meant he hadn't put it on the list. It didn't matter. Plain rice wasn't too bad either, especially when sitting opposite someone who was clearly in heaven by it.

After dinner, Sonic told him to go and play with the cars, he didn't have to help yet with the dishes. At some point, Tails suddenly remembered that Sonic had an idea to find out about the supercar he had seen long ago, but since Sonic was still busy, he waited patiently. This didn't go unnoticed by Sonic of course.

"You want to ask something Tails?"  
"Yes. But you're still busy so I'll wait until you're finished."  
"There's nothing wrong with asking, remember?"  
"Well okay. I just remembered you said something yesterday about the supercar, I think you said you knew a way that maybe we could find out what it was, but I'm not sure..."  
Sonic paused for a moment, recollecting when he had said that. "I did? Ohyeah, I remember now. Just let me finish this first and then we'll do that okay?"

A few minutes later (and then some more because Sonic's computer was old and slow), he had succeeded in getting a browser window open. Tails usually remembered things quite well, and Sonic had thought that the answer would be just a few searches away. However, it had been so long ago now... Tails didn't remember that much, and was only absolutely sure that it was red. Not very specific, and going through various lists and sites of manufacturers didn't turn up anything either. After an hour or so of fruitless browsing, Sonic was afraid that this wasn't going to work after all. There were just too many brands, and even more pictures of red cars on the internet. About the only thing they did establish was that in any case, it had certainly _not_ been a Lamborghini. And on the Ferrari website were some cars that looked quite like it, but weren't it as well. Currently, they were browsing through a site with tons of images of practically every above-average car on Mobius. There were a hundred images per page, and they were already at page 22 of... 583 total.  
"Tails, we'll do one more page, if it's not on there, we stop for today okay?"  
That made Tails a little sad. For so long, he wanted to know what it was that he had seen, and this might be his only chance to. "Hey don't worry.  
If it's not there, I'll save it so that we can continue where we left off another time?"  
"O-okay Sonic," Tails sniffed, hoping that the next page, it would really be there.

It was there. Fourth row, third image. Upon seeing the picture, it all came back to him, especially the _huge_ spoiler. It was exactly like he remembered, this was it! "Whoa whoa Tails, which one are you pointing to? And you don't even know what it's called yet." Tails suppressed his excitement for a brief moment, pointing his finger towards a thumbnail picture of the rear of a car.

When Sonic hovered the mouse over to the picture in question, and then clicked it, the kit's eyes were literally fixated onto the screen. Slowly, row by row, a big version of the image was loading, and with every row, more and more details became visible. First the spoiler, then the round rear lights, and finally the triple exhaust in the middle. Scrolling down for a bit revealed the car's name: Ferrari F40. There were some stats as well, like the 201 mile-an-hour top speed, and that only 1315 were ever made. It was a very rare car, and Tails had been very lucky to have ever seen one in real life outside of a museum.

While he was happy for Tails to have finally found out the truth behind what was probably one of the few happy memories the kit had, it didn't take away the fact that they had been through the entire Ferrari website twice that evening, and Tails didn't recognize it there. Now it was his turn to be the one wanting to find something out. Lucky for him, it didn't take nearly as long as Tails' quest, and pretty soon, he read that the F40 had pop-up headlights. Tails was quite sure that when he saw it, it didn't have them up, no wonder he couldn't recognize it, as all the pictures on the Ferrari website did have them up, and gave the car quite a different look.

With that mystery solved, they continued to watch an episode of The A-Team. It had been a while since he last saw them, he liked how simple it was compared to current TV series. Tails on the other hand, wasn't really able to follow it. To him, they were all bad guys, and he couldn't understand why anyone would find so much violence fun to watch.

Halfway through, after a particularly large explosion that visibly scared Tails, Sonic decided it was enough. It just wasn't his cup of tea, and without a word, he went back to playing with the toy cars. Sonic was glad to see that half an hour later, when it was 9 and thus bedtime for the kit, his cute little smile was back, signifying that he was happy again.

According to Tails, brushing his teeth (or at least, the ones bullies hadn't 'volunteered' to 'remove' yet) felt _weird_. Sonic just said that, like many other things, he would have to get used to it. "Normal people do it twice a day" he added, knowing that the word 'normal' made Tails accept things without further questions.

Tails did say that he didn't feel very tired yet, so Sonic said that if he wanted, he could read some more in his magazine before going to sleep, as long as he stayed in his bed. An hour later, after watching the other half of the episode they started on, and then another one, Sonic too called it a day. Back in his room, he saw that Tails had already fallen asleep, the lights were still on, and the magazine was still lying in his bed. Careful not to wake him, Sonic removed the magazine, folded it close and put it on the nightstand. He whispered Tails goodnight, and although the kit stirred and murmured something incomprehensible, he kept on sleeping.

* * *

The next morning, after another delicious breakfast, Sonic announced that today, they would go shopping to buy him some basic and necessary things.  
And he knew exactly what that meant: town. He hadn't been there for a whole week now, and even though he had been sick most of the time, it had been the best week of his life. He didn't want to go back to the place where all the people who bothered him also were. What if they saw him? Orange-and-white was never the most camouflaging combination anywhere, and especially not now that it was clean.

But Sonic left him no choice, the only choice he was allowed to make was which sweater he would wear on the way up. It was still freezing cold outside, and a fresh pack of snow had fallen during the night, but being inside for a week had made Tails a little overconfident. Besides, he was going to do everything in his power to get Sonic's mind away from going to town, so he hoped that refusing to wear a sweater at all would buy him time. And they also wouldn't need to buy him a jacket. Not only had he survived without one this far, it would also mean less time in town.

What he didn't count on however, was that although Sonic was nice and didn't hurt him, he was also not exactly subtle. If Tails didn't need a jacket, that was fine according to him. They were still going to buy the rest of the things anyway, so he told Tails to wait for a moment while he put his bike outside.

With the newly fallen snow, only the main roads had been cleared, so they had to walk the first few hundred yards. It was ice-cold outside, his feet were soaked again, and the wind made it feel twice as cold still. But he wasn't going to admit that to Sonic, instead complaining about his cold feet, and constantly falling behind in an effort to slow Sonic down. It worked at first, but very soon, Sonic began to get annoyed, which made him just continue in his usual pace, and Tails constantly having to catch up.

When they came to the main road ten minutes later, Sonic got on his bike and motioned for Tails to get on the back. Tails just stood there, shaking his head. Surely Sonic wouldn't just leave him out here?

Wrong. Sonic had absolutely had it with the kit constantly trying to slow him down. "Fine, have it your way. See you in town then, because I'm not going to stand around in the cold here all day." And without so much as another word or glance his way, Sonic cycled off.

At first, Tails didn't believe him. He was absolutely sure that any moment now, Sonic would stop and turn around. But Sonic didn't, and with every passing second, his silhouette became smaller and smaller... And he never looked back, making Tails feel very empty all of a sudden. The only friend he ever had, was leaving him, and if he didn't do something soon, he would lose him forever. At long last, he let his emotions overpower his stubbornness, and cried out Sonic's name, begging him to come back.

In his mind, Sonic was already gone, maybe he wouldn't turn around even if he did hear him. It wasn't until he heard Sonic's familiar voice that he knew he had come back for him after all. And even then, Sonic wasn't being the nice person he became to like so much over the past few days.

"See Tails, this is what happens if you don't listen to what I say."  
"You would... l... leave m-me?" Tails asked, still crying.  
"No. I would never do that, I promised. I would have stopped when I was out of sight and waited for you there. But I think you've learned your lesson, don't you?" Sonic said, still not in a very nice tone. With sad eyes, Tails nodded. "Now, are you going to be a good kit and not complain, slow me down, or in general be annoying today anymore?" Sonic was essentially giving him a second chance, and Tails knew he should take it for granted, be happy that he got that chance at all. Sniffing loudly, he said he would do so. "Good. Now get on the bike." Sonic commanded him.

Tails was very quiet the rest of the way. He was thinking about how a week ago, he had wanted Sonic to go away, and how that now already was one of the worst things that could happen. He didn't know whether Sonic was mad at him, because although he hadn't hurt him in the way bullies did, it still... hurt. Inside. Different. All determination to pretend not being bothered by the cold had vanished as well. He was openly chattering his teeth, and he had never agreed more quickly to something than when Sonic randomly asked him whether he might want a jacket after all.

Soon, they were in the much-feared town, and despite having been so stern earlier, Sonic said that he could hold his hand if he wanted. While it didn't make a night-and-day difference, it still made him feel a lot safer. Pretty soon after that, he was wearing red-and-white shoes that were actually watertight, a blue jacket that was nice and warm, and new gloves. Especially his shoes felt weird, but Sonic had said that was normal with new shoes. His old gloves and shoes were in the box of the new ones; he just couldn't throw them away, at least not yet, and he was relieved that Sonic allowed him that. In various other bags were slippers, and more gloves.

They were just walking towards the next store, when he suddenly noticed a group of bullies across the street, and froze. Sonic immediately turned towards him, and started saying something about what Tails had promised after the little incident on the way up, but stopped in mid-sentence when he saw the kit's worried face.  
"What is it, Tails?"  
"T-there. A-across the street." Tails stammered.  
"Where?"  
"B-blue store." The only store matching that description, was a phone shop. In front of it were 5 or 6 people, looking at the various items on display.  
To reach their own destination, they would have to walk right past them.  
"You know these people?" Sonic asked, already knowing the answer.  
"Y-yes... b-bullies..."  
"Okay let's just go inside this store then and wait till they're gone." It was a good thing Sonic took a better look at what he was about to walk into, because tense as the situation may be, a girl's lingerie store was really the last place he wanted to be in. Next door was a store selling household items, he didn't really need anything there, but at least it would be less awkward.

Actually, they did need something there after all. While pretending to be interesting browsing through... stuff, Sonic remembered how Tails couldn't reach the kitchen sink at all, and that there was a similar problem with the sink in the bathroom. So he bought two of those cheap stools for Tails to stand on.

When they came out again ten minutes later, the bullies that had been standing in front of the phone shop were gone. They looked at pyjamas too, but there weren't any that really interested Tails, and he really liked the ones from Amy, even if they were pink. It wasn't like anybody besides Sonic saw him wearing them anyway, although he would have to ask Amy where she got them from the next time she visited. They managed to find him a nice shawl too, and since they now had everything that was really needed on short notice, they started walking back towards Sonic's bike. As they walked past a toy store, Sonic got an idea, but before he could even mention it, Tails had already spoken.  
"Sonic? W-why did we stop?"  
"Have you ever been inside one of those before?" Sonic asked, pointing to the store. He gave a gasp of awe: he had never been in a toy store before, at least not that he could remember, but he didn't really need to go there right now. He had kept his promise of not being annoying, or resist when Sonic said they were going somewhere, but he was tiring, and more than anything, he just wanted to go home. "N-no... b-but Sonic? Can we go home now, p-please?"

There was a small pause before Sonic answered, deciding what it was going to be. "Alright little buddy, let's go home."

A few minutes later, he was on the back of the bike again, holding the stools and shoebox, while the rest of the bags hang on the steer. He didn't have to chatter his teeth to keep warm this time, as the jacket, shoes and gloves took care of that for him. Soon, they were walking the last few hundred yards to the house, and Tails built up the courage to apologize for his appalling behavior earlier today. Sonic accepted them and said that while he had hoped it wouldn't have come so far, he had to admit that after that, Tails had behaved very well, even in town. If Tails would just cooperate without making a scene first the next time, then according to him, the subject was closed and he would let the kit off without any further punishment. He said he would do so, but asked if he could hold Sonic's hand again then, explaining that it made him feel a lot safer. Of course he could.

Relieved that he had set things right with Sonic, tiredness again overtook him. Luckily, it was only a minute more before they were back in the house, where he just lay down on the first somewhat soft place that met his eye. Which happened to be the long-haired rug near the TV, which was currently being sunbathed through the window, so it even was somewhat warm.

As Sonic came back from parking his bicycle back in the garage and was about to call out as to why Tails had so unceremoniously dumped his brand new jacket in the middle of the hallway, he heard soft snoring coming from the living room. Curious to find out where that came from, he found the kit in question all curled up on the rug in the sunlight. His head was buried into his tails, and by the sound of it, he was asleep.

He just couldn't get it over his heart to wake him, so he let him be and tidied up the hallway himself.

* * *

Q&A:

**UKsLaster**: I'm originally Dutch, but apart from day-to-day conversation, I do just about everything in English. I'm aware that some of the grammar is not exactly what it should be, blame Google Translate for that. I needed the slow pace in the beginning, but I will pick that up starting next one, as well as focus more on events outside the house.

**Eli Swafford**: Yes, I'm absolutely, 100 percent, completely sure that this is my first fanfic...

**Tails is FLUFFY**: You already got your answer at the top. And your idea about a toy car definitely gave me inspiration on how to tie certain things together.

**Guest**: I do not plan to lead this into Sonic 2, or any other game for that matter. In other words: consider it AU. About your other thing: we'll just have to see about that.

As a closing remark, I just want to say thanks to all the reviewers, you are a great motivation to keep me going, even if I don't update as often as I aimed for. Until the next time~


End file.
